Market snapshot · September 18, 2026 close
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AEACapital Research

Independent student research — not an investment firm or financial advice

Competitive Comparison

Estée Lauder vs. Coty

A prestige-beauty turnaround bet against a smaller, mass-and-prestige hybrid beauty company also mid-restructuring.

MetricEstée Lauder Companies (EL)Coty Inc (COTY)
PEG ratioN/A (negative growth)0.18 (one source; largely unavailable elsewhere)
EV/EBITDA24.51x5.9x
Market cap$41.57B$1.88B

EV/EBITDA, compared

EL
24.51x
COTY
5.90x

Same EV/EBITDA figures as the table above, plotted for a direct read. Bold = held in this book.

Market cap, P/E, PEG, EV/EBITDA, and capex sourced via public filings and financial-data aggregators (GuruFocus, StockAnalysis, company earnings releases), as of August 2026 (largely unchanged from the prior update — both figures cross-checked, not re-verified as materially different). PEG ratio sourced primarily from GuruFocus where available; different providers use different growth-rate assumptions, so figures elsewhere for the same stock can vary by several multiples. Gold-highlighted column(s) indicate the name(s) actually held in this book.

Why Estée Lauder, not Coty

Coty trades at a dramatically cheaper EV/EBITDA (5.9x versus Estée Lauder's 24.51x), reflecting real differences in brand quality and market position — Coty leans more mass-market and licensed-brand (including a large fragrance licensing business) than Estée Lauder's owned prestige portfolio (Estée Lauder, Clinique, La Mer, M.A.C). I hold Estée Lauder specifically for that prestige brand moat, on the thesis that a genuine cost-cutting restructuring at a company with real pricing power is a more durable turnaround than one at a lower-margin, more commoditized peer. Coty's cheaper multiple is a legitimate value case I don't currently hold, not a name I've concluded is inferior.