ENERGIZER HOLDINGS, INC. (ENR): what the price assumes

In the published model solve dated 2026-Q2, anchored at $21.23, ENERGIZER HOLDINGS, INC. (ENR) is priced for +1.1% growth. boothcheck publishes no house fair value, target price, or buy/sell rating; individual model outputs and user-controlled scenarios are analytical inputs, not Boothcheck targets. Narrative composed 2026-07-25.

Generated: 2026-09-07 · Exported: 2026-09-09 · Source: https://boothcheck.com/report/ENR

Headline

What The Price Assumes (Inversion)

The assumption today's price embeds, recovered by inverting the valuation.

The operating-margin figure is value-band context at year 12: derived from the framework's value band, a separate calculation — not part of the priced-in solve.

Solve inputs: computed at a 7% cost of capital with 4% terminal growth over a 5-year stage (computed at the 7% minimum rate; the CAPM rate 5.1% sits below it).

How unusual the bet is: n/a

Valuation X-Ray

The price is supported by asset-based and earnings-power and relative-multiple and growth-DCF value. A value/asset-supported name, not a pure growth bet.

How the valuation models price the stock relative to the market price. Price/FV above 1.0 means the market pays more than that lens defends (expensive); at or below 1.0 the lens can defend the price.

Families that justify the price: Asset, Earnings, Relative, Growth

The models below discount at their own flat-beta convention rates (cost of equity 9.3%, WACC 3.1%); the inversion above states its own rate.

Per-Model Detail (n=11)

Economic-Unit Decomposition (Sum Of The Parts)

One or more material disclosed units has unresolved economics. Unknown/general is not evidence of homogeneity: segment SOTP is primary but incomplete, consolidated cash flow may remain only a secondary cross-check when every unit shares an enterprise basis, and one sector multiple or target margin is withheld.

No total common-equity value is stated. One or more material units lack a supported unit value. The displayed values are an indicative subtotal; consolidated debt and cash cannot be applied to a fraction of the company.

Solvency

Bullet Takeaways

• Shareholders own the thin top slice of this business: the whole enterprise is priced near 4.9 billion dollars, and the equity is the roughly 1.4 billion left after borrowings of about 3.5 billion.
• The category is not growing, and the 10-K names why: "Because of the highly competitive environment in which we operate, our customers, including online retailers, frequently seek to obtain pricing concessions or better trade terms and are increasingly offering private label brands, resulting in either a reduction of our margins or the loss of distribution to lower-cost competitors."
• Margin recovery is the live story, and it needs reading carefully: reported gross margin reached 40.2% in the March 2026 quarter, helped by a $47.6 million anticipated tariff refund that will not repeat.

Bull Case

One number decides this stock, and it is not a growth rate. The whole business, lenders included, carries a price near 4.9 billion dollars. Shareholders own what is left after borrowings of roughly 3.5 billion, which is the 1.4 billion of market value the ticker quotes. Put another way: every dollar of debt retired becomes a dollar of equity, and a business whose enterprise value moves ten percent moves the shares about thirty-five. That gearing runs both directions, and the bull case is simply that the machine underneath it produces enough cash to keep running the trade in the shareholder's favor.

It does produce the cash. Operating cash flow in the first half of fiscal 2026 came to $147.8 million, with free cash flow of $105.9 million, or 7.4% of net sales. Out of that, dividends of $20.6 million went out in the March quarter at 30 cents a share. A company carrying this much debt that still funds a dividend of that size out of current cash flow is telling you the cash flow is not in question; only its size relative to the debt is.

The margin line has turned, and the turn is broader than the headline benefit that dominates it. Reported gross margin was 40.2% in the second fiscal quarter against 39.1% a year earlier, and on the company's adjusted basis 44.4% against 40.8%. Underneath, the restructuring program contributed about $4 million of savings in the quarter and carry-over pricing added six tenths of a point to organic sales. Compare where that leaves the gross margin against the shelf it competes on: NWL runs a 34.0% gross margin and SPB 36.6%, while CHD reaches 45.1%. Energizer sits closer to the branded end of that range than to the private-label end, which is the practical measure of whether a brand still commands anything.

The smaller segment is where the operating improvement is clearest. Auto Care segment profit reached $105.6 million in fiscal 2025 against $94.1 million the year before, while the batteries side slipped from $554.8 million to $542.2 million. That is a business with two engines running at different speeds rather than one engine slowing, and Auto Care is a category where private label has made far less progress than it has in batteries.

Then there is what the price is actually asking. Today's level embeds profit growth of roughly 2.9% a year over the next five years, which is a pace the company has delivered before and not far from the low single digit sales growth it has guided to for the fiscal year. Unusually, every family of valuation method lands above today's price rather than below it. That is not a signal that the market has made a mistake, and a careful reader should not take it as one. It is what happens when a modest enterprise is financed with a large amount of debt: the equity becomes the geared claim on the difference. But the corollary is real. If the borrowings come down while the cash flow holds, the arithmetic works on the owner's side without the business having to do anything remarkable.

Bear Case

The most dangerous competitor Energizer faces is the customer. Retailers and online marketplaces that stock its packs also sell their own, and the 10-K describes the squeeze in a single sentence: "Because of the highly competitive environment in which we operate, our customers, including online retailers, frequently seek to obtain pricing concessions or better trade terms and are increasingly offering private label brands, resulting in either a reduction of our margins or the loss of distribution to lower-cost competitors." A rival brand can be out-marketed. A customer who becomes a rival controls the shelf, the search results and the terms, all at once. The filing also flags the slower structural problem underneath: as devices in developed markets stop taking replaceable cells, the volume trend in batteries and lights points down regardless of who wins the shelf.

The recent numbers show the pressure rather than contradicting it. Organic net sales fell 5.5% in the fiscal second quarter, with volume down 6.1% and carry-over pricing recovering only six tenths of a point. On the segment lines, Batteries and Lights profit slipped to $542.2 million in fiscal 2025 from $554.8 million the year before. The peer group tells the same story in different handwriting: SPB shrank about 3.8% over its trailing year and NWL about 4.1%, while the household names with genuine pricing power grew, CHD up 2.2% and CL up 4.3%. This is a shelf where the branded incumbents in the shrinking categories are losing ground and the ones in growing categories are not.

Which makes the balance sheet the sharp edge. Borrowings run to roughly 3.51 billion dollars against liquid assets of about 172.5 million. Interest expense was 154.3 million dollars in fiscal 2025, set against earnings before income taxes of $284.1 million for the same year, so the lenders take a substantial share of the profit before the owners see any of it. As of September 30, 2025 the term loan stood at 857.9 million dollars with quarterly principal payments of 0.25% of the original balance, a schedule that retires the principal slowly and reprices the rest at whatever rates prevail. The company noted that interest expense rose in the March 2026 quarter on a higher average debt balance. Deleveraging is not currently happening; it is currently being discussed.

The margin recovery needs the same scrutiny. Of the improvement in the second fiscal quarter, a $47.6 million benefit came from an anticipated refund of tariffs previously enacted under the International Emergency Powers Act, alongside $11.7 million of production tax credits. An anticipated refund is a legal outcome recorded as a margin, and it does not recur. Strip it and the underlying gross margin improvement is a good deal more ordinary than 360 basis points suggests, which matters because the full-year adjusted gross margin outlook was raised specifically on that benefit.

Finally, a caution about how undemanding the price looks. The market is asking for roughly 2.9% annual profit growth over five years, which reads as a low bar. It is a low bar only at the return an owner is assumed to want. For an equity that sits on top of this much borrowing, a single percentage point of additional required return moves the growth the price needs by something on the order of eight points. That is not a rounding error in the analysis. It is the definition of a geared claim, and it means the apparent margin of comfort in the priced-in assumption is far thinner than the headline growth rate suggests.

Valuation

Most of what this business is worth belongs to its lenders. The enterprise carries a price near 4.9 billion dollars, and after borrowings of roughly 3.5 billion the shareholders' portion is about 1.4 billion. Every valuation question that follows is shaped by that fact, so it belongs at the front rather than in a closing paragraph about the balance sheet.

What the price assumes is modest on its face. It embeds profit growth of about 2.9% a year for five years, a pace consistent with what the company has recently delivered and with the low single digit sales growth it has guided to for fiscal 2026. Measured against its own record the assumption is unremarkable. The reader should hold one caveat alongside it: for a claim as geared as this one, the required growth is extremely sensitive to the return an owner demands, moving by something like eight points for each point of required return. The 2.9% is a direction, not a measurement.

The methods produce an unusual pattern here. Every family lands above today's price rather than below it, whether the lens is book value, earnings power, peer multiples or discounted cash flow. That looks like a unanimous verdict of cheapness, and it is worth explaining rather than repeating. Two mechanics are doing the work. The methods that capitalize an earnings or cash flow stream value the entire business and then hand shareholders the residual after debt, so a modest difference of opinion about the whole becomes a large difference per share when the residual is under a third of the total. And the methods anchored on book equity produce large numbers because book equity has been ground down to a few dollars a share by years of distributions and write-downs, which makes the return earned on that book look extraordinary. Neither mechanic is an error. Neither is evidence of a mispricing. Both are descriptions of leverage.

The trailing multiple says the same thing more plainly: the stock changes hands at somewhere around seven times its trailing earnings, which is roughly half what a stable branded consumer business normally fetches, and the discount is compensation for the debt sitting in front of the equity rather than a comment on the brands.

So the close belongs on the debt schedule. Interest expense of 154.3 million dollars in fiscal 2025 sat against earnings before income taxes of $284.1 million, liquid assets are about 172.5 million dollars, and the term loan retires at a quarter of a percent of its original balance each quarter. The share count has drifted down at roughly 0.9% a year and the dividend has held at 30 cents a quarter. What a buyer at $20.95 is underwriting, precisely, is that the cash flow keeps covering the interest while the principal grinds down, and that the categories do not shrink faster than the debt does.

Catalysts

Fiscal second-quarter results, reported May 5, 2026 for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, showed the two forces in this business pulling against each other. Net sales came to $643.3 million, down 3.0% from $662.9 million, with organic sales off 5.5% on a 6.1% volume decline that management attributed to the timing of battery orders during a plastic-free packaging conversion, a slow start to the auto care selling season, and a modest effect from the conflict in the Middle East. Currency added 2.4 points. Reported gross margin improved to 40.2% from 39.1%.

The margin improvement had two identifiable, dated sources. A benefit of $47.6 million was recorded for an anticipated refund of tariffs previously enacted under the International Emergency Powers Act, and production tax credits contributed $11.7 million in the quarter. Working the other way, the company recorded a non-cash settlement charge of $26.1 million on the termination of its United Kingdom pension plan, and restructuring and related costs of $27.1 million against $8.7 million a year earlier. Reported diluted earnings per share came to $0.15 against $0.39 a year earlier.

Guidance moved in the same direction the margins did. For fiscal 2026 the company now expects net sales up low single digits with organic sales roughly flat. It raised the full-year adjusted gross margin range to 40% to 41%, attributing that move primarily to the tariff refund. Adjusted earnings per share are now expected at the high end of a previously provided $3.30 to $3.60 range, and for the fiscal third quarter the company guided to low single digit organic sales growth with adjusted earnings per share of $0.75 to $0.85. That third-quarter print is the next real test, because it is the first period in which the guided return to organic growth has to appear in the actual sales line rather than in the outlook.

Peer Cohorts (Per Segment, With Filing Citations)

Batteries & Lights (reported)

• SPB (Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc.)
• FY2025 10-K: …such as filtration systems, heaters and pumps; and aquatics consumables such as fish food, water management and care. Companion Animal: Good ' n ' Fun®, DreamBone®, Good Boy®, Nature's Miracle®, SmartBones®, FURminator®, Wild Harvest TM , Dingo®, 8IN1® (8-in-1), Better Belly®, and Meowee!®. Dog and Cat Food:…
• FY2025 10-K: …haircut kits. Kitchen & Home Appliances: Black+Decker®, Russell Hobbs®, Emeril Legasse®, PowerXL®, Goerge Forman®, Copper Chef ®, Breadman®, and Juiceman®. Personal Care: Remington®. All brands and tradenames are owned by the Company, with the exception of Black+Decker® ("B+D") and Emeril Legasse® ("Emeril") which…
• NWL (NEWELL BRANDS INC.)
• FY2025 10-K: …Ball brand, pursuant to a license from Ball Corporation. Home fragrance products are sold primarily under the Chesapeake Bay, WoodWick and Yankee Candle brands. The H&CS segment primarily markets its products directly to mass merchants, warehouse clubs, home centers, department stores, drug/grocery stores, specialty…
• FY2025 10-K: …customer demand patterns, as well as inflationary pressures. Patents and Trademarks The Company has many patents, trademarks, brand names, tradenames and other intellectual property rights that are, in the aggregate, important to its business. The Company's most significant brands include Calphalon, Campingaz,…
• WDFC (WD-40 COMPANY)
• FY2025 10-K: …the cost of certain raw materials and freight services. As a result, we took actions to increase prices with our customers to help mitigate some of these inflationary pressures. We also implemented cost savings initiatives to mitigate those pressures. Our business results depend on the effective management and remedy…
• FY2025 10-K: Current trends among these large retailers include increased demand for new innovative products and marketing, requiring suppliers to maintain or reduce product prices and to deliver products within shorter lead times. Our products compete both within their own product classes as well as within product distribution…
• CHD (CHURCH & DWIGHT CO., INC.)
• FY2025 10-K: …enabling us to achieve some of the economies of an integrated business capable of producing sodium bicarbonate and related products from the basic raw material. The partnership agreement and other supply agreements between Tata Chemicals (Soda Ash) Partners and us are terminable upon two years notice by either of us.…
• FY2025 10-K: …tax withholding obligations in connection with the vesting of restricted stock. 34 ITEM 6. RESERVED 35 CHURCH & DWIGHT CO., INC AND SUBSIDIARIES (Dollars in millions, except share and per share data) I TEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS Management's Discussion…
• CL (COLGATE-PALMOLIVE COMPANY)
• FY2025 10-K: …these conditions, such as our funding-the-growth and revenue growth management initiatives and the Strategic Growth and Productivity Program. 27 (Dollars in Millions Except Per Share Amounts) However, in the current environment it may become increasingly difficult to implement certain of these mitigation strategies.…
• FY2025 10-K: …our business. We rely extensively on information and operational technology systems ("IT/OT Systems"), some of which are managed, hosted, provided and/or used by third parties, including cloud-based service providers, and their vendors, in order to conduct our business. Our uses of these systems include, but are not…

Auto Care (reported)

• SPB (Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc.)
• FY2025 10-K: …such as filtration systems, heaters and pumps; and aquatics consumables such as fish food, water management and care. Companion Animal: Good ' n ' Fun®, DreamBone®, Good Boy®, Nature's Miracle®, SmartBones®, FURminator®, Wild Harvest TM , Dingo®, 8IN1® (8-in-1), Better Belly®, and Meowee!®. Dog and Cat Food:…
• FY2025 10-K: …efforts to introduce innovative products that offer enhanced value to consumers through new designs and improved functionality. 8 Table of Contents Home and Personal Care (HPC) HPC sells products in the small home appliances and personal care appliance product categories. Home appliances products consist of small…
• NWL (NEWELL BRANDS INC.)
• FY2025 10-K: …2025, 2024 and 2023, respectively. 56 Footnote 6 - Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets, Net A summary of changes in the Company's goodwill by reportable business segment is as follows for 2025 and 2024 (in millions): December 31, 2025 Segments: Net Book Value at December 31, 2024 Foreign Currency Exchange Net Book…
• FY2025 10-K: …resulted in an incremental non-cash impairment charge in the H&CS segment of $19 million and $9 million, for each tradename. A hypothetical 10% reduction in the forecasted revenue used in the relief from royalty method in determining the fair value of the tradename would have resulted in an incremental non-cash…
• CHD (CHURCH & DWIGHT CO., INC.)
• FY2025 10-K: …Accounting and Financial Disclosure 89 9A. Controls and Procedures 89 9B. Other Information 89 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 89 PART III 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 90 11. Executive Compensation 90 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial…
• FY2025 10-K: …tax withholding obligations in connection with the vesting of restricted stock. 34 ITEM 6. RESERVED 35 CHURCH & DWIGHT CO., INC AND SUBSIDIARIES (Dollars in millions, except share and per share data) I TEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS Management's Discussion…
• CL (COLGATE-PALMOLIVE COMPANY)
• FY2025 10-K: …dishwashing liquids, Ajax, Fabuloso and Murphy household cleaners and Suavitel, Soupline, Fluffy and Cuddly fabric conditioners. Sales of Oral, Personal and Home Care products accounted for 44%, 17% and 16%, respectively, of our total worldwide Net sales in 2025. Geographically, Oral Care is a substantial part of our…
• FY2025 10-K: Comparability In the fourth quarter of 2025, we recorded a non-cash charge of $794 aftertax ($919 pretax) to adjust the carrying values of goodwill and intangible assets related to the skin health business. Given lower than expected category growth rates and weaker than expected performance, particularly in China, we…
• WDFC (WD-40 COMPANY)
• FY2025 10-K: …the Marksman ® Spout to deliver precise application to small mechanisms and assemblies, tool maintenance and threads on screws and bolts. 3-IN-ONE Oil is the market share leader among drip oils in many countries. It also has wide industrial applications in such areas as locksmithing, HVAC, marine, farming and…
• FY2025 10-K: …Americas segment: 2000 Flushes ® - The 2000 Flushes brand is a line of long-lasting automatic toilet bowl cleaners. It includes a variety of formulas, including the Bleach and Blue plus Bleach that has a unique EPA-approved "kills bacteria" claim. 2000 Flushes is sold primarily in the U.S. and Canada through grocery…

Methodology Note

• Priced-in inversion: the valuation is inverted on the current price to recover the operating-income growth, duration, and steady-state margin the price embeds (ROE for financials, FFO growth for REITs).
• Valuation x-ray: the valuation models, grouped into four families (asset, earnings, relative, growth). Each model is expressed as a price/FV ratio (distance from price), not a point fair-value estimate. The spread across families is the disagreement.
• Economic-unit decomposition (SOTP): each disclosed business unit is assigned its native valuation basis before any multiple is applied. Operating units are valued on enterprise value; funded financial units are valued on their own common equity, because their borrowings fund earning assets rather than levering the parent. A company total is stated only once every material unit carries a supported value and the parent capital bridge reconciles.
• Solvency: net cash/debt, net-debt-to-NOPAT, interest coverage, and share-count CAGR from EDGAR financials (net debt / FFO and fixed-charge coverage for REITs; regulatory-capital framing for financials).
• Peer cohorts: per-segment comparables with deep-linkable SEC filing citations.

Fundamentals sourced from SEC EDGAR filings. Current price from Databento. The priced-in inversion and valuation x-ray are computed by the boothcheck engine; narrative composed by AI from the structured data.