Elf Can't Beat Luxury Brands Even With Cheap Prices

Elf Beauty plummeted 30 percent, the most ever and to the lowest ever, with its ugly reputation of cutting growth targets prompting analysts to finally throw in the towel, as Citi’s Wendy Nicholson put it. Four Wall Street firms downgraded the stock as of this writing.

Elf operates in the mass market cosmetic segment where sales growth "remains subdued" versus the double-digit growth being enjoyed by the luxury segment, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Deborah Aitken said. Just look at Estee Lauder: Elf is down 12 percent in two years vs Estee Lauder up 43 percent.