PRESTIGE CONSUMER HEALTHCARE INC. (PBH): what the price requires
The current priced-in claim for PRESTIGE CONSUMER HEALTHCARE INC. (PBH) is temporarily suppressed because the live engine record is unavailable. The dated report remains a snapshot, not a current market read.
Generated: 2026-07-14 · Exported: 2026-07-16 · Source: https://boothcheck.com/report/PBH
Headline
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Ticker | PBH |
| Company | PRESTIGE CONSUMER HEALTHCARE INC. |
| Current price | $49.02/sh |
| Composition | North American OTC Healthcare - Analgesics 10% / North American OTC Healthcare - Cough & Cold 7% / North American OTC Healthcare - Women's Health 19% / North American OTC Healthcare - Gastrointestinal 16% / North American OTC Healthcare - Eye & Ear Care 12% / North American OTC Healthcare - Dermatologicals 11% / North American OTC Healthcare - Oral Care 8% / North American OTC Healthcare - Other OTC 1% / International OTC Healthcare - Analgesics 1% / International OTC Healthcare - Cough & Cold 2% / International OTC Healthcare - Women's Health 2% / International OTC Healthcare - Gastrointestinal 7% / International OTC Healthcare - Eye & Ear Care 2% / International OTC Healthcare - Dermatologicals 1% / International OTC Healthcare - Oral Care 1% / International OTC Healthcare - Other OTC 0% |
What The Price Requires (Inversion)
The assumption today's price embeds, recovered by inverting the valuation.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Inversion basis | whole-company |
| Operating margin needed | 9.2% |
| Operating margin today | 29.7% |
| Margin compression implied | -20.5pp |
| Multiple paid | 10x operating income |
The operating-margin requirement is derived from the framework's value band at year 12, a separately labeled basis from the headline growth/duration solve.
The price sits below what even a 5%/yr operating-profit decline would warrant; the inversion reports a bound, not a solved growth path.
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 5.8% sits below it).
Reconcile: at the x-ray's 9.3% required return this reads ~-4.3%/yr; the models below use their own rates.
How unusual the bet is: within-range
| Reference | Value |
|---|---|
| vs own history | -0.33σ |
| cohort percentile (of 112 peers) | 7 |
| implied end-window share | 0% |
Valuation X-Ray
The price is supported by asset-based 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.
| Family | Median price/FV | Models | Reads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asset | 1.10x | 5 | expensive |
| Earnings | 1.48x | 5 | expensive |
| Relative | 0.55x | 3 | justifies |
| Growth | 1.22x | 3 | expensive |
Families that justify the price: Asset, Relative, Growth
The models below discount at their own flat-beta convention rates (cost of equity 9.3%, WACC 7.7%); the inversion above states its own rate.
Per-Model Detail (n=16)
| Model | Family | FV | Price/FV | Applicable | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DCF Perpetual Growth | Growth | $40.19 | 1.22x | yes | FCF base $0.2B, growth -4% (input: historical growth), terminal g 0.5%, WACC 7.6%, 5yr projection |
| DCF Exit Multiple | Growth | $51.49 | 0.95x | yes | Exit EV/EBITDA: 8.5x / 10.5x / 12.5x (bear / base = today's held flat / bull), 5yr |
| Relative Valuation | Relative | $89.71 | 0.55x | yes | P/E 24x (static sector reference · 2026-04), scenarios: 20.4x / 24.0x / 27.6x (bear / base = reference held flat / bull), EV/EBITDA 16x |
| Simple DDM | Growth | — | — | no | — |
| Two-Stage DDM | Growth | — | — | no | — |
| Simple Excess Return | Asset | $42.78 | 1.15x | yes | BV/sh $39.25, ROE (TTM) 10.1%, ke 9.3% |
| Two-Stage Excess Return | Asset | $44.61 | 1.10x | yes | 5yr excess ROE then converge to ke=9.3% |
| Discounted Future Market Cap | Growth | $26.17 | 1.87x | yes | Rev $1.1B, growth -4% (input: historical growth; tapered), Terminal P/S: 1.8x / 2.2x / 2.5x (bear / base = today's held flat / bull, cap 8x) |
| Growth-Adjusted P/E | Relative | — | — | no | — |
| Margin Trajectory | Growth | — | — | no | — |
| Earnings Power Value | Earnings | $26.55 | 1.85x | yes | Normalized EBIT (5y avg op income, one-time charges added back) $0.22B × (1−21%) / WACC 7.6% → EPV (no growth) |
| Residual Income | Asset | $44.95 | 1.09x | yes | BV $39.25 + 5yr PV of (ROE (TTM) 10.1% − Kₑ 9.3%) × BV; BV grows 6.6%/yr |
| Graham Number | Asset | $58.76 | 0.83x | yes | √(22.5 × EPS $3.91 × BVPS $39.25) — Graham's conservative floor |
| EV/EBITDA Relative | Relative | $85.58 | 0.57x | yes | EBITDA $0.32B × sector EV/EBITDA 16.0x |
| FCF Yield | Earnings | $35.48 | 1.38x | yes | FCF $246.4M / Kₑ 9.3% — zero-growth perpetuity |
| SBC-Adj FCF Yield | Earnings | $33.05 | 1.48x | yes | SBC-adj FCF $0.24B (FCF $0.25B − SBC $0.01B) capitalized at Kₑ |
| Ben Graham Formula | Earnings | $3.28 | 14.95x | yes | EPS $3.91 × (8.5 + 2×-5.0%) × (4.4 / 5.3%) |
| ROIC-Justified P/B | Asset | $10.76 | 4.56x | yes | BV $39.25 × (ROIC 2.1% / WACC 7.6%) |
| P/Sales Sector | Relative | $90.56 | 0.54x | yes | Revenue $1.09B × sector P/S 4.0x |
| PEG Fair Value | Relative | — | — | no | — |
| Earnings Yield | Earnings | $42.27 | 1.16x | yes | EPS $3.91 / required return 9.3% (Rf 4.3% + ERP 5.0%) |
| Funds From Operations Multiple | Relative | — | — | no | — |
| Clinical Phase NPV | Growth | — | — | no | — |
| Merton | Asset | — | — | no | — |
| V5 Mechanical | — | — | — | no | — |
Solvency
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Net debt | $956.8m |
| Net debt / NOPAT (after-tax) | 3.72x |
| Net debt / operating income (pre-tax) | 2.94x |
| Share count CAGR (buyback) | -1.4% |
| Burning cash | no |
Interest expense is not separately reported in the latest filings, so interest coverage cannot be computed.
Bullet Takeaways
- Prestige owns a portfolio of niche over-the-counter consumer health brands at a 28% operating margin, the economics of category leaders that need little reinvestment and throw off steady cash.
- The cash funds an acquisition machine: the company is buying the Breathe Right nasal-strip brand and Australia's LaCorium skin-care business, financed with new term debt that lifts leverage before cash flow brings it back down.
- The structural worry is organic decline, full-year revenue fell about 4%, so the next read is whether the guided return to 1% to 3% organic growth in fiscal 2027 actually arrives or the company keeps buying growth it cannot generate internally.
Bull Case
The asset worth owning here is the balance sheet's ability to keep buying brands and paying for them out of cash flow. Prestige runs a collection of category-leading over-the-counter health brands at a 28% operating margin, and the model is built on the fact that established consumer-health brands need modest advertising and little capital to maintain. The company's stated strategy is exactly that: develop existing brands through new lines and advertising, and add to the portfolio through acquisition "We develop our existing brands by investing in new product lines, brand extensions and strong advertising support. Acquisitions of consumer health and personal care brands have als". That generates roughly $246 million of free cash flow against a manageable debt load, the fuel for the acquisition engine.
That engine is running. The company is acquiring the Breathe Right nasal-strip brand, a category leader, and Australia's LaCorium therapeutic skin-care business for about $150 million, with LaCorium adding roughly $40 million of revenue and about $12 million of EBITDA including synergies. These are the kind of deals Prestige has done well historically: buy a defensible niche brand, plug it into an existing distribution and marketing machine, and let the margin flow through. The deals are debt-financed, which lifts leverage in the near term, but the playbook is to deleverage afterward using the strong cash flow the portfolio generates.
Capital return rounds out the picture. The company recently completed a $207 million buyback, retiring more than 6% of its shares, and the share count has been falling. For a business with steady margins and reliable cash conversion, retiring shares at a blended earnings multiple in the high teens compounds value for the holders who stay. The bull case is a cash-generative brand portfolio whose balance sheet can keep absorbing accretive niche acquisitions while returning capital, with the leverage taken on for Breathe Right and LaCorium the kind the cash flow has historically paid down.
Bear Case
The structural truth a Prestige holder has to sit with is that the existing portfolio is not growing on its own. Full-year fiscal 2026 revenue fell about 4%, and the fourth quarter declined 5% on weaker eye-and-ear-care sales and Middle East shipping disruptions. A brands business whose organic top line shrinks is, by definition, leaning on price increases and acquisitions to stand still. Management is guiding to a return to 1% to 3% organic growth in fiscal 2027, but that is a forecast of recovery from decline, not evidence of it, and roughly a third of even that modest growth is expected to come from pricing rather than volume. The bet the price makes on a value-supported, durable portfolio assumes the brands hold their shelf position; the recent numbers show that holding it is getting harder.
That dependence on acquired growth is the second concern, and it changes the risk profile. The Breathe Right and LaCorium deals are financed with new term loan debt, which pushes leverage higher before the deleveraging begins. An acquisition strategy works only as long as accretive niche brands are available at sensible prices and the balance sheet can carry the deals; in a higher-rate environment, the cost of that debt is real, and a string of acquisitions to offset organic decline is a treadmill that has to keep running faster. The 10-K is candid that the business is exposed to seasonality, changes in formulation and packaging, and competitor promotional programs "seasonality of our product offerings and (vi) the impact of changes in product formulation, packaging and advertising. We participate in the promotional programs o", the everyday pressures that erode a brand's position over time.
The valuation methods read the stock as value-supported, but the leverage is the qualifier. Net debt of roughly $0.9 billion runs above three times operating income on the report's basis, and the new acquisition debt lifts it further before cash flow brings it down. The company does not separately report interest expense in a way the report can turn into a coverage ratio, which leaves the leverage read less precise than ideal. The dividend-free, buyback-and-acquisition capital allocation is rational, but it competes with debt service for the same cash. The bear does not need the brands to collapse; it needs organic revenue to keep declining while the company adds leverage to paper over the gap, and a value multiple on a shrinking organic base is the classic shape of a slow trap.
Valuation
The price treats Prestige as a value-and-asset name rather than a growth story, which fits a brands portfolio with a declining organic top line. The methods broadly support the price: the asset-value, relative-multiple, and growth families all land at or above the quote, and the stock trades at a blended earnings multiple in the high teens against a consumer-health sector that commands more. The inversion frames the price as supported by the demonstrated economics, not as a bet on acceleration, which is the honest read of a 28%-margin business whose revenue slipped about 4% last year.
The peer-multiple lens is where the apparent cheapness shows most clearly. On both a P/E and an EV/EBITDA basis, the stock screens below the sector, with the relative methods landing well above the price, the market is paying less per dollar of earnings and EBITDA than comparable consumer-health names fetch. The earnings-power methods, which capitalize current cash flow, sit closer to the price, reflecting that the cash generation is strong but the growth credited to it is minimal. The disagreement is modest here; this is not a stock priced on a durability premium the static methods cannot frame, it is one priced near where the methods cluster, with the discount reflecting the organic-decline overhang.
Solvency is the load-bearing caveat. Net debt of about $0.9 billion runs above three times operating income on the report's basis, and the Breathe Right and LaCorium acquisitions are debt-financed, lifting leverage before the planned paydown. The company is not burning cash, free cash flow near $246 million comfortably covers debt service and the buyback, and the share count is falling. But the value case rests on the brands defending their economics while the leverage is worked down, and the recent organic decline is the variable that decides whether that paydown happens on schedule. The most decisive figure is organic revenue growth, because a value multiple on a portfolio that keeps shrinking organically is the difference between a bargain and a trap.
Catalysts
Prestige reported its fiscal 2026 results on May 13, 2026, and they missed expectations even as the year's earnings held. Full-year revenue was $1,088.7 million, down about 4%, with diluted earnings of $3.91 a share and adjusted earnings of $4.38. The fourth quarter was the weak point, revenue down 5% on lower eye-and-ear-care sales and Middle East shipping disruptions. The decline is the central fact the fiscal 2027 outlook has to reverse.
The acquisition news was the headline alongside the results. The company announced the purchase of Australia's LaCorium Health, a therapeutic skin-care business, for about $150 million, expected to close in the second quarter of fiscal 2027 and to add roughly $40 million of revenue and about $12 million of EBITDA including synergies. Separately, Prestige is acquiring the Breathe Right nasal-strip brand, a larger deal financed with new term loan debt that lifts near-term leverage.
Management introduced a fiscal 2027 outlook for organic revenue growth of 1% to 3%, framing a return to organic growth driven by recovering eye-care shipments and steady consumption, with volume expected to provide roughly two-thirds of the growth and pricing the rest. Analyst sentiment is buy-leaning but softening, with several recent price-target reductions even as ratings hold. The figures to watch are organic revenue growth and the pace of deleveraging once the Breathe Right and LaCorium debt is on the books.
Peer Cohorts (Per Segment, With Filing Citations)
North American OTC Healthcare (reported)
- HLN (Haleon plc)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- KVUE (Kenvue Inc.)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- PRGO (Perrigo Company plc)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- CHD (CHURCH & DWIGHT CO., INC.)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- CLX (CLOROX CO /DE/)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- OGN (Organon & Co.)
- (no filing in the citation store)
International OTC Healthcare (reported)
- HLN (Haleon plc)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- KVUE (Kenvue Inc.)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- PRGO (Perrigo Company plc)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- CHD (CHURCH & DWIGHT CO., INC.)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- OGN (Organon & Co.)
- (no filing in the citation store)
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.
- 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.
Sources
PBH fiscal 2026 results and acquisition announcements, May 2026 · PBH buyback completion disclosure, 2026 · PBH fiscal 2026 results, May 2026 · PBH acquisition-financing disclosures, 2026 · PBH LaCorium acquisition announcement, May 2026 · PBH Breathe Right acquisition disclosures, 2026 · PBH fiscal 2027 guidance, May 2026 · Jefferies and Oppenheimer target-revision notes, 2026