One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$51.04 our estimate vs market $29.56
Wall Street consensus: $31.00 (-39.3% lower than our fair-value estimate)
42% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
Helen of Troy Limited
HELE · NMS · Consumer Defensive · Household & Personal Products
Current price
$29.56
52-week range
$13.85 - $30.68
Market cap
$688.51M
Balance sheet
Stretched
1.85x Concerning
Net debt $745.67M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
2 Rewards
2 Risks
2 rewards · 2 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 1.7% last year.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
- Risk Return on equity was -39.8% last year — the company lost money on shareholders' equity.
- Risk Insider ownership is only 2.0% (peer median: 4.5%).
What this company does
Helen of Troy Limited
Helen of Troy owns a collection of popular consumer brands you might use every day, including OXO kitchen gadgets, Hydro Flask water bottles, Osprey backpacks, and health products like Vicks humidifiers. The company makes money selling these items through major retailers and online, so its success is tied to the continued popularity of these brands and how much people are spending on household and personal goods.
How the company got here
Founded in 1968 in El Paso, Texas, Helen of Troy began as a wig store and then expanded into hair appliances for salons. A major turning point was a 1980 licensing agreement (a deal to use another company's brand on its products) with the well-known hair stylist Vidal Sassoon, which propelled its growth. Over the years, the company grew by acquiring other companies and brands, transforming from a beauty-focused business into a more diversified global company with products for the home, outdoors, and wellness. Key acquisitions that shaped its current form include OXO (kitchen tools) in 2004, PUR (water filters) in 2011, Hydro Flask (insulated bottles) in 2016, and Osprey (backpacks) in 2021.
What it actually does
Helen of Troy is a company that owns a collection of well-known consumer brands, rather than making all the products itself. It designs, develops, and sells a wide variety of products you might find in your home or use for outdoor activities and personal care. The company relies on other manufacturers, mostly in Asia, to produce many of its goods. You can find its products in big retail stores like Target and Walmart, drugstores, and online.
Home & Outdoor
This is one of the company's two main business areas, called segments. It includes a range of items for household activities and outdoor adventures. For the kitchen, it offers popular OXO brand food storage containers, cooking gadgets, and cleaning tools. This segment is also home to the well-known Hydro Flask brand of insulated water bottles and tumblers, and Osprey, which makes technical backpacks for hiking and travel.
Beauty & Wellness
This is the company's other major business segment, focused on personal care and health products. It includes hair appliances like curling irons and blow dryers from brands such as Hot Tools, Revlon, and Drybar. On the wellness side, this segment sells healthcare devices you might use at home, such as Vicks and Braun thermometers, Honeywell air purifiers, and PUR water filtration systems.
What management is betting on now
The company's current strategy focuses on re-energizing its most promising brands and investing more in product innovation. Management is also working to make the company more efficient to improve its operating margins (the percentage of sales revenue left after all the day-to-day business costs are paid). A key part of this plan, called Project Pegasus, aims to reduce costs and streamline how the company operates, particularly its supply chain (the network involved in getting a product to the customer). They are also focused on generating more cash and paying down debt.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2025 Q2
$39.71M
FY2025 Q3
$191.00K
FY2025 Q4
$27.06M
FY2026 Q1
$44.98M
FY2026 Q2
$-21.94M
FY2026 Q3
$5.77M
FY2026 Q4
$103.10M
FY2027 Q1
$-6.44M
Revenue
$402.12M
Net income
$35.76M
Diluted EPS
1.51
Operating cash flow
$-636.00K
Free cash flow
$-6.44M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$470.02M
Net income
$-55.56M
Diluted EPS
-2.34
Operating cash flow
$111.32M
Free cash flow
$103.10M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$512.83M
Net income
$-84.06M
Diluted EPS
-3.65
Operating cash flow
$11.95M
Free cash flow
$5.77M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$431.78M
Net income
$-308.64M
Diluted EPS
-13.44
Operating cash flow
$-10.47M
Free cash flow
$-21.94M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$371.65M
Net income
$-450.72M
Diluted EPS
-19.65
Operating cash flow
$58.34M
Free cash flow
$44.98M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$485.89M
Net income
$50.92M
Diluted EPS
2.20
Operating cash flow
$34.98M
Free cash flow
$27.06M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$530.71M
Net income
$49.62M
Diluted EPS
2.17
Operating cash flow
$8.32M
Free cash flow
$191.00K
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$474.22M
Net income
$17.01M
Diluted EPS
0.74
Operating cash flow
$44.60M
Free cash flow
$39.71M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $51.04 vs current price $29.56
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $31.00 (-39.3% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $51.04 a share — about 72.7% above today's price of $29.56, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Stretched
Net debt $745.7M. Interest coverage 1.8x.
Net debt
$745.67M
Interest coverage
1.85x
Helen of Troy Limited's profit covers its interest bill about 1.8 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here and 1 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Stretched
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
HELE
BASELINE
Helen of Troy Limited
Total debt $771.35M Interest coverage 1.85x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $5.71B Interest coverage 1.47x -21% vs HELE Carries about 1.3x less debt cushion than HELE.
Total debt $1.28B Interest coverage 2.67x +44% vs HELE Carries about 1.4x more debt cushion than HELE.
Total debt $725.50M Interest coverage 4.98x +169% vs HELE Carries about 2.7x more debt cushion than HELE.
Total debt $11.76M Interest coverage -53.17x -100% vs HELE This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with HELE.
Total debt $609.02M Interest coverage 7.01x +279% vs HELE Carries about 3.8x more debt cushion than HELE.
What you should know
The case for and against HELE
2 Rewards
2 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 1.7% last year.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
Risks
-
Return on equity was -39.8% last year — the company lost money on shareholders' equity.
-
Insider ownership is only 2.0% (peer median: 4.5%).
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
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Forward P/E
7.39x
P/B
0.82x
P/S
0.38x
EV/EBITDA
6.50x
PEG ratio
1.19x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
45.4%
Operating margin
15.1%
Net margin
-22.7%
ROE
-39.8%
ROA
4.4%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.91x
Current ratio
1.78x
Quick ratio
0.75x
Total debt
$771.35M
Total cash
$25.67M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$1.82B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
-5.3%
EPS TTM
-18.73
EPS 5Y CAGR
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Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$112.16M
Free CF TTM
$131.91M
FCF margin
7.3%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
—
Payout ratio
0.0%
Last ex-div date
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