E.L.F. Beauty, Inc. (ELF) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · Consumer Staples / Food & Beverage · as of Sep 24, 2026
E.L.F. Beauty, Inc. (ELF)
A forensic read on E.L.F. Beauty, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
6.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
95.5
P / E (ttm)
2.3%
ROE
$5.9B
Market cap
24.6%
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 (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). 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.
E.L.F. Beauty, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 6.2, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+63.7%
FY2025→FY2026
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +63.7% relative to their own average in FY2026 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash. An accrual is a claim that still has to be collected or written down, so the gap resolves in a later period whichever way it goes. The build is led by receivables up +39% against revenue +25% and inventory up +18% against +27% in cost of sales. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 15% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 63.7%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.
2.7%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 2.7% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2024–FY2026 from 16%. The capital base behind it grew +119% across FY2024–FY2026, from $822M to $1.8B, while the return fell 13.7 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 16% the older base was already earning.
+1.3%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +3% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+1.3%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~1.3% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2024 has been diluted ~3%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.64B
Revenue Growth YoY+24.6%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+26.4%
Net Margin1.6%
Free Cash Flow$190.1M
Return on Equity2.3%
Debt / Equity0.74x
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 E.L.F. Beauty, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?