Louis Vuitton's $160 Lipstick: A Strategic Move in the Luxury Beauty Market
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: Aug 25 2025
0mins
Should l Buy ELF?
Source: Yahoo Finance
Louis Vuitton's New Cosmetics Line: Louis Vuitton has launched its first permanent color cosmetics collection, featuring lipsticks and eyeshadow palettes priced significantly higher than competitors, with lipsticks at $160 each.
Market Reaction and Expert Opinions: Experts express skepticism about the demand for such high-priced cosmetics, suggesting that it may be a strategic move to reinforce Louis Vuitton's luxury market position rather than a guaranteed success.
Luxury Market Trends: The luxury cosmetics market is facing challenges, including a slowdown in demand and rising prices across various brands, with some companies adjusting their pricing strategies in response to economic conditions.
Impact of Tariffs on Beauty Brands: Tariffs imposed during the Trump administration are affecting profit margins for beauty brands, prompting companies like E.l.f. Beauty and Estee Lauder to raise prices amid a competitive landscape.
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Analyst Views on ELF
Wall Street analysts forecast ELF stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for ELF is 117.50 USD with a low forecast of 85.00 USD and a high forecast of 136.00 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
13 Analyst Rating
10 Buy
3 Hold
0 Sell
Strong Buy
Current: 82.090
Low
85.00
Averages
117.50
High
136.00
Current: 82.090
Low
85.00
Averages
117.50
High
136.00
About ELF
e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. is a multi-brand beauty company. The Company offers inclusive, accessible, clean, vegan, and cruelty-free cosmetics and skincare products. The Company's family of brands includes e.l.f. Cosmetics, e.l.f. SKIN, Naturium, Well People, Keys Soulcare, and rhode. Its e.l.f. SKIN is an ingredient-focused, dermatologist-developed formulas for every eye, lip and face. The Company operates across beauty categories including eye, lip, and face makeup, beauty tools and accessories, and skincare products. Its color cosmetics and skin care products are broadly sold through food, drug, and mass channels, as well as through department stores and direct and specialty channels. The Company sells its products with retailers in the United States, as well as internationally. It also sells its products online through its own direct e-commerce channels, as well as through other e-commerce Websites.
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
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- Earnings Beat: E.l.f. Beauty reported an adjusted EPS of $1.24 for Q3, surpassing the consensus estimate of $0.72, with revenue of $489.5 million exceeding expectations of $459.1 million, indicating robust growth across retail and e-commerce channels.
- Guidance Upgrade: The company raised its full-year adjusted EPS guidance to a range of $3.05 to $3.10 and revenue guidance to $1.60 billion to $1.61 billion, both above consensus estimates, reflecting management's confidence in future growth prospects.
- Stock Price Pressure: Following an initial post-earnings rally, E.l.f. Beauty's shares fell 8.15% on Monday due to profit-taking and a cautious reassessment of the guidance, highlighting investor concerns about sustaining upward momentum in the near term.
- Technical Analysis: Currently, E.l.f. Beauty's stock is trading 13.9% below its 20-day SMA and 24.6% below its 100-day SMA, indicating significant short-term weakness, with key support at $69.00, suggesting traders should remain cautious.
See More
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- Ad Performance Lacks Impact: e.l.f. Beauty's (ELF) 30-second Super Bowl ad was rated as one of the worst, and while it is unlikely to significantly hurt sales, it represented a missed opportunity to engage new consumers during the year's most-watched sporting event.
- Brand Awareness Potential: Media studies indicate that successful Super Bowl ads can increase brand awareness by 43%, and e.l.f.'s ad failed to capitalize on this potential, which may affect its long-term market performance.
- Significant Advertising Investment: e.l.f. Beauty has ramped up its advertising investment to 24%-26% of net sales for fiscal 2025, approximately $281.5 million, reflecting an over 800% increase over four years and far exceeding the industry average of 10%-20%.
- Optimistic Future Outlook: Despite the ad's poor reception, e.l.f. Beauty has raised its fiscal 2026 net sales growth outlook to 22%-23%, demonstrating the company's confidence in future growth prospects.
See More
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Retail Sales Report: The upcoming retail sales report is expected to confirm a successful 2025 holiday season.
Unexpected Success: The holiday season managed to exceed expectations despite potential challenges.
See More
e.l.f. Beauty and Toast Inc. See High Options Trading Volume
- e.l.f. Beauty Options Activity: e.l.f. Beauty Inc. recorded an options trading volume of 9,828 contracts, equivalent to approximately 982,800 shares, representing 46.4% of its average daily trading volume of 2.1 million shares over the past month, indicating strong market interest in the company's future performance.
- High Strike Call Options: The $84 strike call option for e.l.f. has seen particularly high activity with 627 contracts traded today, representing about 62,700 underlying shares, reflecting investor expectations for future price appreciation.
- Toast Inc. Options Surge: Toast Inc. experienced even higher options trading volume at 51,966 contracts, translating to approximately 5.2 million shares, which constitutes 46.1% of its average daily trading volume of 11.3 million shares, showcasing strong investor interest in its future trajectory.
- Bullish Call Options: The $30 strike call option for Toast has recorded 22,461 contracts traded today, representing around 2.2 million shares, indicating a bullish sentiment among investors regarding the company's growth prospects.
See More
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- Software Stock Rebound: Following last week's severe selloff, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (NYSE:IGV) jumped over 3% on Monday, marking its strongest daily gain since late April 2025, indicating renewed investor interest in software stocks and a potential recovery in market confidence.
- Nasdaq Outperformance: The Nasdaq 100 climbed 1%, significantly outperforming broader Wall Street, while the S&P 500 added 0.7%, suggesting that the strong rebound in tech stocks is driving overall market gains and may attract more capital inflows.
- Individual Stock Surge: AppLovin Corp. (NASDAQ:APP) surged more than 14% after logging four consecutive weekly declines, reflecting optimistic market sentiment regarding its future growth potential, which could draw more investor attention to the company.
- Commodity Market Recovery: Oil prices rose over 2% to $64.6 a barrel, while gold rebounded 2.5% to $5,090 an ounce, and silver soared over 6% to $82 an ounce, indicating an improvement in market risk appetite that may positively impact related industries.
See More
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- Significant Sales Growth: e.l.f. Beauty reported a 38% year-over-year sales increase in Q3 2023, reaching $489.5 million, significantly exceeding the analyst consensus of $460 million, indicating robust market demand and brand appeal.
- Enhanced Profitability: Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) surged 68% from $0.74 to $1.24, surpassing the analyst expectation of $0.72, reflecting the company's success in cost control and operational efficiency.
- Market Share Expansion: The e.l.f. brand gained 130 basis points in the mass cosmetics market, with U.S. and international revenues rising 36% and 44% respectively, despite weak consumption in the U.K., showcasing the brand's global appeal.
- Optimistic Outlook: The company raised its fiscal 2026 sales guidance to a growth range of 22% to 33%, expecting Rhode to contribute $260 million to $265 million in revenue, demonstrating confidence in future growth and strategic positioning.
See More
