Live: e.l.f. Beauty Reports Earnings Today – Will It Issue a Big Beat?

Elf’s conference call is happening now, you can listen in here if you like.

We will be listening in to the call so posts will be limited. If you leave this tab open a new post should automatically post later with our summary of the call.

We thank you for joining us today for this review of Elf’s earnings. We’re hosting several live blogs on 24/7 Wall St., so if you’re looking for analysis of your favorite stocks make sure to come back!

Shares of Elf are now down about 4%. It could be the persisently lower margins that are attributed to tariffs. Once again, the company guided to adjusted EBITDA in the first half of 20% versus 23% last year.

Investors may be worried this is a continuing trend that will impact profitability moving forward.

We went back and looked at the exact wording of Elf’s guidance and here’s what they said:

• Net sales growth above the 9% net sales growth reported in Q1
• Adjusted EBITDA margins of approximately 20% as compared to approximately 23% in the first half of Fiscal 2025, primarily due to higher tariff costs

So, it’s not as bad as we first thought. Sales growth above the 9% figure in Q1 appears largely inline with Wall Street expectations for next quarter.

Elf guided to 9% revenue growth in the first half of the Fiscal year.

Last year they reported sales of $625 million in the first two Fiscal quarters.

The company just reported revenue of 353.7 million.

That seems to imply next quarter’s revenue could come in below Wall Street expectations (right now Wall Street has quaterly revenue estimates at $365 million next quarter).

That could be why we’re seeing this reversal. We’ll keep digging into earnings.

It’s been a huge swing in after hours sentiment with e.l.f. Beauty shares.

Shares first shot upward to ~$116 per share, and now are trading back at $108 per share. That’s down about 2% where the company closed trading today.

ELF | e.l.f. Beauty Q1’26 Earnings Highlights:

• Adj. EPS: $0.89 [✅]; [DOWN] -19% YoY
• Revenue: $353.7M [✅]; [UP] +9% YoY
• Adj. Gross Margin: 69% [✅]; [DOWN] -215 bps YoY
• Net Income: $33.3M [✅]; [DOWN] -30% YoY
• Adj. EBITDA: $87.1M; [UP] +12% YoY

First Fiscal Half Outlook:

• Revenue: Above 9% growth [➖]
  • The Company is not providing a full year Fiscal 2026 financial outlook due to the wide range of potential outcomes related to tariffs.
  • For the first half of Fiscal 2026, the Company expects adjusted EBITDA margins of approximately 20%, down from approximately 23% in the first half of Fiscal 2025, primarily due to higher tariff costs.

Other Key Q1 Metrics:

• Adj. Operating Income: $48.7M [➖]; [DOWN] -4% YoY
• Adj. Operating Expenses: $177.3M [➖]; [UP] +7% YoY
• Free Cash Flow: $27.2M;
• Effective Tax Rate: 34.8% (vs. 0.7% YoY)
• Cash and Cash Equivalents: $170.0M; [UP] +56% YoY
• Long-term Debt: $256.7M; [DOWN] -1.5% YoY

CEO Commentary:

• Tarang Amin: “Our strong Q1 results, including 210 basis points of market share gains, are a continuation of the consistent, category-leading growth we’ve delivered over the past 26 quarters. The combination of our value proposition, powerhouse innovation and disruptive marketing engine continue to fuel our results. We remain excited by the significant whitespace we see ahead as we strive to make the best of beauty accessible for all.”

It’s a slight revenue beat at $353.7 million and a larger EPS beat at $.89 per share.

Shares are immediately up 6%.

Here’s something to monitor heading into earnings: e.l.f. shares are rallying this afternoon. Shares fell to about $108 per share at 10 a.m., but have now jumped to $111.89 as of 2:38 p.m. ET.

That’s a 1.87% gain for the day. We expect e.l.f. to report shortly after the closing bell this afternoon.

Here’s what Wall Street expects e.l.f. to report this quarter. Remember that e.l.f. didn’t issue guidance for this fiscal year due to the impact of tariffs, so Wall Street is ‘flying blind’ more than usual.

Wall Street Q1 Fiscal 2026 Consensus:

• Revenue: $353.8 million
• Adjusted EPS: $.84
• GAAP EPS: $.65
• EBITDA: $74.5 million

Looking ahead to Fiscal Q2, Wall Street expects the company to deliver $366 million in sales. It’s unclear what kind of guidance the company will offer, given they pulled guidance last quarter.