Forensic Analysis · Household & Personal Care Products · as of Nov 8, 2026
Estee Lauder Companies Inc (EL)
A forensic read on Estee Lauder Companies Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
2.8
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
4.7%
ROE
5.0%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Estee Lauder Companies Inc earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.8, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
4.6%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 4.6% in the latest fiscal year, against 4.8% in FY2024, having run between -5.0% and 4.8% across FY2024–FY2026 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $630M in FY2024 and $507M in FY2026, with operating income at 6.2% of revenue in FY2024, -5.5% in FY2025 and 5.2% in FY2026. The capital base behind it came down -16% across FY2024–FY2026, from $13.1B to $11.0B, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on. FY2024's operating profit carried a $291M goodwill write-off, a $180M asset write-down and a $124M restructuring charge that took about 3.0 points off that year's return, and FY2026's carried a $813M restructuring charge that took about 4.8 points off the latest; so, net of each other, the two charges take about 1.8 points off the -0.2-point change across FY2024–FY2026. FY2025's operating profit carried a $1.3B asset write-down, a $481M restructuring charge and a $13M goodwill write-off that alone took about 11.3 points off that year's return; FY2025 sits between the two ends of FY2024–FY2026, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
$304M
FY2024–FY2025
Goodwill impairments.Took $304M of goodwill writedowns across 2 years (FY2024 ($291M), FY2025 ($13M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
-35%
FY2024→FY2025
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~35% in FY2025 (from FY2024). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$15.05B
Revenue Growth YoY+5.0%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-1.8%
Net Margin1.2%
Free Cash Flow$1.32B
Return on Equity4.7%
Debt / Equity1.92x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Estee Lauder Companies Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?