What Happened?
Shares of personal care company Edgewell Personal Care (NYSE: EPC) fell 12.4% in the afternoon session after the company reported weak first quarter 2025 results which included a beat on EBITDA expectations, but organic revenue missed and full-year EBITDA guidance fell short of Wall Street estimates. North American sales dragged things down, especially in shaving, feminine care, and sun products. Sales were down just over 3%, and while gross margins improved a bit from cost cuts, that couldn't offset lower volumes. What's more, EPC lowered their full-year sales and EBITDA outlook. Overall, this was a softer quarter.
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 Edgewell Personal Care? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
What The Market Is Telling Us
Edgewell Personal Care’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 4 moves greater than 5% over the last year. Moves this big are rare for Edgewell Personal Care and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 3 months ago when the stock dropped 13% on the news that the company reported underwhelming fourth-quarter 2024 results. Sales declined relative to the previous year and barely met expectations. Earnings also fell below expectations. The weak growth was attributed to lower volumes, and promotional efforts also led to weaker pricing. This likely fed into margins as profits fell, and EBITDA guidance for the next quarter only came in roughly in line. Overall, this was a weaker quarter.
Edgewell Personal Care is down 21.4% since the beginning of the year, and at $26.30 per share, it is trading 36.1% below its 52-week high of $41.19 from July 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Edgewell Personal Care’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $975.16.
Today’s young investors won’t have read the timeless lessons in Gorilla Game: Picking Winners In High Technology because it was written more than 20 years ago when Microsoft and Apple were first establishing their supremacy. But if we apply the same principles, then enterprise software stocks leveraging their own generative AI capabilities may well be the Gorillas of the future. So, in that spirit, we are excited to present our Special Free Report on a profitable, fast-growing enterprise software stock that is already riding the automation wave and looking to catch the generative AI next.
