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Should You Continue to Hold Prestige Consumer Stock in Your Portfolio?

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Key Takeaways

  • PBH gains from digital strategies, e-commerce momentum and niche brand innovations like Hydralyte.
  • Acquisitions and product diversity help PBH minimize category-specific slowdowns and market volatility.
  • Long-term debt of $1.01B and forex risks challenge PBH's profitability despite solid revenue growth forecasts.

Prestige Consumer Healthcare’s (PBH - Free Report) long-term growth strategy centers on building great brands. The company continues to experience robust momentum in the e-commerce channel as a result of its long-term investments and brand-specific digital strategies. Over the years, it has expanded its brand portfolio both organically and through acquisitions. Meanwhile, unfavorable solvency and currency headwinds pose risks for Prestige Consumer’s operations and profitability. 

In the past year, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock has rallied 30.9% compared with the 9.1% rise of the industryand the S&P 500 composite’s 9.1% growth.

The renowned consumer healthcare product company has a market capitalization of $4.23 billion. Its earnings yield of 5.6% is well ahead of the industry’s 0.6% yield. Furthermore, PBH surpassed earnings estimates in three of the trailing four quarters and came in line in one instance, delivering an average surprise of 2.8%.

Let’s delve deeper.

Upsides for PBH Stock

Focus on Brand-Building: The company emphasizes targeted brand-building and innovation across niche consumer healthcare categories, supporting its consistent leadership in market share. Hydralyte exemplifies Prestige Consumer Healthcare’s long-term approach, especially in its core Australian market, where the focus remains on redefining hydration as essential to everyday wellness. After securing global rights (excluding the United States), Prestige Consumer is gradually expanding Hydralyte into previously untapped international markets by building retail partnerships and increasing consumer awareness. Recent product innovations, including new watermelon and pineapple flavors, aim to strengthen consumer engagement.

Dramamine, another flagship GI brand, continues to benefit from effective marketing and new offerings. Fleet, a category-defining brand with more than a 50% share in rectal laxatives, is pursuing adjacent growth opportunities. In the Women’s Health category, both Monistat and Summer’s Eve hold top market share positions. Recent innovations include the Monistat Maintain Kit, which offers a dual-format boric acid solution designed for odor control and pH balance, and the new Summer’s Eve Whole Body Deodorant.

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E-Commerce Strength: In fiscal 2025, e-commerce sales once again grew at a double-digit rate, with channel shipments accelerating notably in the fourth quarter, partly in anticipation of certain tariff actions. E-commerce now represents a high-teens percentage of total sales, up from approximately 15% the previous year. Brand-specific digital strategies like the Stye website refresh and engaging content have driven consumer education, retention and conversion. While growth remains primarily U.S.-centric, Prestige is working with international partners to build out digital channels abroad. The company’s consistent profitability across all channels and ongoing investment in digital marketing position it for sustained success in the evolving online healthcare space.

Acquisitions Aid Growth: Prestige Consumeracquired TheraTears and four other over-the-counter consumer brands across the VMS and Cough & Cold categories from the 2021 acquisition of Akorn Operating Company LLC. The company also acquired Hydralyte (an over-the-counter oral rehydration brand in Australia) from the Hydration Pharmaceuticals Trust of Victoria, Australia. Having a strong and diverse portfolio of products has provided Prestige Consumer with multiple sources of growth and minimized the impact of any individual category slowdowns.  Moreover, this diversity stretches beyond just brands to the diversity of channels, geographies and suppliers, each of which benefits the company’s business in periods of uncertainty and volatility.

What Concerns PBH Stock?

Debt Profile: At the end of the fiscal fourth quarter, Prestige Consumer had a long-term debt of $1.01 billion, while cash and cash equivalents were $98 million. Although the company does not have any near-term debt payable, the debt-to-capital ratio stood moderately leveraged at 35.6%, while times interest earned was 7. This suggests that the company might face difficulty in paying off its interest obligations.

Currency Fluctuations: Prestige Consumer generally relies on brokers and distributors for the sale of its products in foreign countries, having generated approximately 15.6% of fiscal 2025 revenues from its international business. Hence, fluctuating foreign exchange rates remain a concern, which could result in unfavorable increases in the price of the company’s products or cause increases in the cost of certain products purchased from its foreign third-party manufacturers. For fiscal 2026, PBH anticipates organic revenue growth of approximately 1% to 2%, with foreign exchange headwind of about one percentage point.

PBH Stock Estimate Trend

In the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for PBH’s fiscal 2026 earnings per share has increased 1 cent to $4.77.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s fiscal 2026 revenues is pegged at $1.15 billion. This suggests an increase of 0.9% from the year-ago reported number.

Key Picks

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader medical space are Phibro Animal Health (PAHC - Free Report) , Hims & Hers Health (HIMS - Free Report) and Cencora (COR - Free Report) .

Phibro Animal Health has an estimated long-term earnings growth rate of 26% compared with the industry’s 15.7%. Its earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, with the average surprise being 30.6%. Its shares have rallied 37% compared with the industry’s 9.1% growth in the past year.

PAHC sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Hims & Hers Health, currently carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), has an earnings yield of 1.3% against the industry’s 11.9% yield. Shares of the company have surged 132.2% compared with the industry’s 32.5% gain. HIMS’ earnings surpassed estimates in two of the trailing four quarters, matched on one occasion and missed on another, the average surprise being 2.8%.

Cencora, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present, has an earnings yield of 5.4% compared with the industry’s 4.1%. Shares of the company have rallied 23.6% against the industry’s 19.1% fall. COR’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, with the average surprise being 6%.

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