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Why e.l.f. Beauty (ELF) Stock Is Nosediving


Anthony Lee /
2025/10/20 1:35 pm EDT

What Happened?

Shares of cosmetics company e.l.f. Beauty (NYSE:ELF) fell 6.9% in the afternoon session amid concerns about the brand's growth momentum. Also, there were recent concerns that new tariffs on China could affect companies like e.l.f. Beauty that sell non-essential goods to consumers.

The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks. Is now the time to buy e.l.f. Beauty? Access our full analysis report here.

What Is The Market Telling Us

e.l.f. Beauty’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 48 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was 10 days ago when the stock dropped 8.2% on the news that investor fears grew over new tariffs on China, which triggered a broad-based market sell-off that hit consumer-focused stocks particularly hard. The downturn was sparked after President Donald Trump threatened “massive” tariffs on China. This news caused major stock indexes to fall, with the S&P 500 dropping 1.8% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq sinking 2.5%. 

e.l.f. Beauty is up 4.7% since the beginning of the year, but at $128.77 per share, it is still trading 12.2% below its 52-week high of $146.67 from September 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of e.l.f. Beauty’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $6,239.

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