We recently published a list of 15 Stocks That Took a Nosedive in January. In this article, we are going to take a look at where e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) stands against other stocks that took a nosedive in January.
Historically, the S&P 500’s performance in January sets the pace for the rest of the year. According to Jared Blikre, Yahoo Finance Markets Editor, the S&P 500 returned nearly 17% in January, which is pretty impressive because a positive January usually translates as a positive year for the markets. Jared also added that while the energy and utilities sectors are lagging, the communication services and healthcare segments are showing signs of strength.
At the same time, while the S&P 500 remained positive at the end of January, some stocks declined due to various reasons especially the launch of the Chinese OpenAI rival, DeepSeek, and new regulations amid the new administration.
15 companies in diverse sectors such as the financials, biotechnology, healthcare, technology, and energy industries, declined due to unsupportive market conditions, macroeconomic environment, and other factors. That said, let’s take a look at the 15 stocks that took a nosedive in January.
To come up with the 15 names, we only considered stocks with a market capitalization of more than $2 billion. We then shortlisted the stocks based on their performance in the past quarter and picked the 15 with the largest 30-day decline from January 3, 2024, to February 3, 2025.
At Insider Monkey we are obsessed with the stocks that hedge funds pile into. The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
A close up of the lip and eye products from the company on a model in a fashion and beauty shoot.
e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF)
30-day Decline as of February 3, 2025: 25.2%
e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) is one of the stocks that nosedived in January, declining by more than 25%. The stock had a share price of $125.39 on January 3, which decreased to $93.74 on February 3.
e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) is a beauty company that is committed to providing clean, vegan, and cruelty-free cosmetics and skin care products. In the past 30 days, the company saw a downward trajectory with declining investor sentiment in the firm.
On January 21, Dara Mohsenian, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, suggested that ELF was growing much slower, as the wildfires have put immense pressure on the beauty industry. The analyst firm has an overweight rating on the stock with a price target of $153.
Similarly, on February 3, Mark Astrachan, an analyst at Stifel, lowered his price target on the firm from $115 to $105, keeping a hold rating on the stock. While the firm has high expectations for the fiscal years 2025 and 2026, the analyst remains cautious of volatility in the US market, especially in sales trends.
Overall, ELF ranks 11th on our list of stocks that took a nosedive in January. While we acknowledge the potential of ELF to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that certain AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ELF but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.