L'Oréal Launches New Share Buyback Program, Stock Rises
L'Oréal announced Thursday evening that it has entrusted an investment services provider with a mandate to acquire its own shares, for an amount that could reach €500 million—a move welcomed by the market.
In a statement, the world's leading beauty company specified that the plan calls for the buyback, by the end of June 2026, of a maximum of two million shares, which are intended to be subsequently cancelled.
The cosmetics group recalled that this program falls within the authorization approved by its shareholders at the Annual General Meeting held on April 29, 2025.
As a reminder, the company allocated amounts of €497.5 million and €503.3 million to its share buybacks in 2024 and 2023, respectively.
The precise amount of buybacks carried out during the 2025 fiscal year will be detailed in the next upcoming report, but L'Oréal had already announced on April 1, 2025, the launch of a share buyback program of the same €500 million amount, again with the goal of cancelling the repurchased shares.
Buoyed by another year of strong 2025 annual results, the company is flush with cash, with a treasury exceeding €8.3 billion as of December 31 last year.
On the Paris stock exchange, L'Oréal shares were up 0.7% at €374.2 on Friday morning in early trading, outperforming the CAC 40 index, which was up 0.1%. The stock has gained 2.1% since the start of the year, compared to a 1.2% decline for the CAC.
L'Oréal is the world leading cosmetic group. The group offers skincare products (37.2% of net sales), makeup products (19.1%), haircare products (17.5%), fragrances (14.6%), hair colouring products (7.6%) and other (4%). Net sales break down by family of products as follows:
- consumer cosmetics (36.5%): L'Oréal Paris, Garnier, Maybelline New York, NYX Professional Makeup, Essie Niely, Dark and Lovely, Mixa, MG and Carol's Daughter brands;
- luxury cosmetics (35.4%): Lancôme, Kiehl's, Giorgio Armani Beauty, Yves Saint Laurent Beauté, Biotherm, Helena Rubinstein, Shu Uemura, IT Cosmetics, Urban Decay, Ralph Lauren, Mugler, Viktor&Rolf, Valentino, Azzaro, Prada, Takami, A?sop, etc.;
- active cosmetics (16.4%): La Roche-Posay, Vichy, CeraVe, SkinCeuticals, Skinbetter Science, etc.;
- professional products (11.7%): L'Oréal Professionnel, Kérastase, Redken, Matrix and PureOlogy brands.
Products are marketed through mass distribution and distance selling, selective distribution, hair salons and pharmacies.
At the end of 2025, L'Oréal has 37 production sites worldwide.
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: France (7.3%), Europe (26.5%), North America (26.6%), North Asia (22.9%), Asia/Pacific/Middle East/Africa (9.3%) and Latin America (7.4%).
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