The Beauty Tech Group Valuation Multiples

Samsung Electronics is a South Korean public technology manufacturer incorporated in 1969 and headquartered in Suwon. Its Device eXperience division sells smartphones, televisions, home appliances, computers and network products to consumers and enterprise customers. The Device Solutions division manufactures memory, logic and other semiconductor products, while Samsung Display produces display panels and Harman supplies automotive electronics and connected-audio systems. The company earns revenue from product sales, components, licensing and related services across a worldwide manufacturing and distribution network. Samsung Electronics listed in Korea in 1975 and operates through hundreds of subsidiaries and regional organisations. It also makes strategic and venture investments that support technologies relevant to semiconductors, devices, artificial intelligence, robotics and its broader product ecosystem.

Johnson & Johnson is the world's largest and most diverse healthcare firm. It has two divisions: innovative medicine and medtech. These now represent all of the company's sales following the divestment of the consumer business, Kenvue, in 2023. After restructurings in 2023-24, the drug division focuses on three main therapeutic areas: immunology, oncology, and neurology. Geographically, just over half of total revenue is generated in the United States.

AbbVie is a pharmaceutical firm with a strong exposure to immunology (with Humira, Skyrizi, and Rinvoq) and oncology (with Imbruvica and Venclexta). The company was spun off from Abbott in early 2013. The 2020 acquisition of Allergan added several new products and drugs in aesthetics, including Botox. The 2024 acquisitions of Cerevel (neuroscience) and ImmunoGen (oncology) help supplement AbbVie's portfolio.

Since its founding in 1837, Procter & Gamble has become one of the world's largest consumer product manufacturers, with annual sales of nearly $85 billion. It operates with a lineup of leading brands, including more than 20 that generate annual global sales of more than $1 billion each, such as Tide laundry detergent, Charmin toilet paper, Pantene shampoo, and Pampers diapers. Sales outside its home turf represent just more than half of the firm's consolidated total.

UnitedHealth Group is one of the largest private health insurers and provides medical benefits to about 51 million members globally, including 1 million outside the US as of December 2024. As a leader in employer-sponsored, self-directed, and government-backed insurance plans, UnitedHealth has obtained massive scale in medical insurance. Along with its insurance assets, UnitedHealth's Optum franchises help create a healthcare services colossus that spans everything from pharmaceutical benefits to providing outpatient care and analytics to both affiliated and third-party customers.

Roche is a Swiss biopharmaceutical and diagnostic company. The firm's bestselling pharmaceutical products include a variety of oncology therapies from acquired partner Genentech, and its diagnostics group was bolstered by the acquisition of Ventana in 2008. Oncology products account for 50% of pharmaceutical sales, and centralized and point-of-care diagnostics for more than half of diagnostic-related sales.

Thermo Fisher Scientific sells scientific instruments and laboratory equipment, diagnostics consumables, and life science reagents. The firm operates through four segments as of year-end 2024 (revenue figures include some cross-segment revenue): analytical technologies (17% of sales); specialty diagnostic products (11%); life science solutions (23%); and lab products and services, which includes CRO services (the remainder).

Siemens is a German industrial technology group headquartered in Munich that supplies automation, electrification, rail and healthcare equipment, software and services. It was founded in Berlin on October 1, 1847 by Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske as Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske. The group reports through Digital Industries (factory automation and industrial software), Smart Infrastructure (buildings and electrical distribution), Siemens Mobility (rolling stock, signalling and rail systems) and Siemens Financial Services, and holds about 75% of separately listed Siemens Healthineers. It sells mainly to manufacturers, utilities, infrastructure owners, transit operators and hospitals, and in fiscal 2025 generated revenue of €78.9 billion and net income of €10.4 billion with about 327,000 employees. In 2020 it spun off Siemens Energy, keeping a 17.1% stake, and bought Varian Medical Systems for US$16.4 billion; in 2025 it added Altair Engineering for about US$10 billion, its largest acquisition, and Dotmatics for US$5.1 billion. Roland Busch has been chief executive since February 2021, and the shares trade on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange as a DAX member.

L’Oréal is the largest beauty product maker in the world, with consumer products (37% of sales) and luxury beauty (35%) the major segments, followed by derma skin care (16%) and professional products (12%). The firm also has a diversified geographic footprint, generating 34% of sales in Europe, 27% from North America, 23% in North Asia, and the rest from various emerging markets across South Asia, Latin America, and Africa. L’Oréal owns a mix of premium and mass beauty brands sold through a wide range of channels such as mass retail, drugstores, department stores, travel retail, e-commerce, hair salons, and medi-spas. Leading brands include Lancôme, Yves Saint Laurent, Maybelline, Kiehl’s, L’Oréal Paris, Kerastase, CeraVe, Garnier, and Armani.

Abbott manufactures and markets cardiovascular and diabetes devices, adult and pediatric nutritional products, diagnostic equipment and testing kits, and branded generic drugs. Products include pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators, neuromodulation devices, coronary stents, catheters, infant formula, nutritional liquids for adults, continuous glucose monitors, and immunoassays and point-of-care diagnostic equipment. Abbott derives roughly 60% of sales outside the United States.

With roughly one-third of the global branded diabetes treatment market, Novo Nordisk is the leading provider of diabetes care products in the world. Based in Denmark, the company manufactures and markets a variety of human and modern insulins, injectable diabetes treatments such as GLP-1 therapy, oral antidiabetic agents, and obesity treatments. Novo also has a biopharmaceutical segment (contributing less than 10% of revenue) that specializes in protein therapies for hemophilia and other disorders.

In 1984, Danaher's founders transformed a real estate organization into an industrial-focused manufacturing company. Then, through a series of mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, Danaher now focuses primarily on manufacturing scientific instruments and consumables in the life sciences and diagnostic industries after the late 2023 divestiture of its environmental and applied solutions group, Veralto.

Intuitive develops, produces, and markets a robotic system for assisting minimally invasive surgery. It also provides the instrumentation, disposable accessories, and warranty services for the system. The company has placed more than 10,000 da Vinci systems in hospitals worldwide, with more than 6,000 installations in the US and a growing number in emerging markets.

Unilever is a diversified beauty, wellbeing, and personal care (44% of 2024 sales by value), homecare (20%), and packaged food (36%) company. Its brands include Dove personal-care products, Knorr soups and sauces, Hellmann's mayonnaise, Axe and Rexona deodorants, and TRESemme haircare. The firm has been acquisitive in recent years; notable purchases include Paula's Choice, Liquid I.V., Horlicks, and Wild deodorants. The company derives 58% of its sales from emerging markets and 42% from developed markets. The US is its largest market, accounting for around 20% of sales, followed by India, which accounts for 11% of sales.

Medtronic is a global medical-technology company founded in 1949 and legally headquartered in Ireland, with major operating leadership in Minnesota. It develops and manufactures therapeutic and diagnostic devices for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, neurological conditions, spinal disorders, surgical care and other chronic health problems. Products include pacemakers, defibrillators, transcatheter heart valves, stents, insulin pumps, ablation systems, patient-monitoring equipment and surgical tools. Hospitals, clinicians and healthcare systems buy the company's devices, disposable supplies, software and related services. Medtronic earns most of its revenue from product sales and serves customers across the Americas, Europe, Asia and other international markets. The company is publicly listed and maintains a large global research, manufacturing and commercial organization. Its cardiovascular strategy includes minority investments, partnerships and acquisitions of specialist medical-device developers. Medtronic invested in CathWorks, co-promoted its FFRangio system and completed the acquisition of the remaining shares for $585 million in April 2026.

Stryker designs, manufactures, and markets an array of medical equipment, instruments, consumable supplies, and implantable devices. The product portfolio includes hip and knee replacements, extremities, endoscopy systems, operating room equipment, embolic coils, hospital beds and gurneys, and orthopedic robotics. Stryker remains one of the three largest competitors in reconstructive orthopedic implants and holds the leadership position in operating room equipment. Roughly one-fourth of Stryker's total revenue currently comes from outside the United States.

EssilorLuxottica is a combination of the leading manufacturer of premium frames and sunglasses and the leading manufacturer of optical lenses. Both companies are significantly larger than the next biggest competitor and command over 15% of the fragmented global eyewear market. The company has a broad geographical presence, with around 37% of sales in Europe, 45% in North America, and the rest in Asia and Latin America.

Since its founding in 1806, Colgate-Palmolive has grown into a leading player in the household and personal care industry. In addition to its namesake oral care line (which accounts for more than 40% of its total sales), the firm manufactures shampoos, shower gels, deodorants, and home care products sold in over 200 countries. International sales account for about 70% of its total business, including approximately 45% from emerging regions. It also owns specialty pet food maker Hill's (around one-fifth of sales), which sells a majority of its products through veterinarians and specialty pet retailers.

Boston Scientific produces less invasive medical devices that are inserted into the human body through small openings or cuts. It manufactures products for use in angioplasty, blood clot filtration, kidney stone management, cardiac rhythm management, catheter-directed ultrasound imaging, upper gastrointestinal tract diagnostics, interventional oncology, neuromodulation for chronic pain, and treatment of incontinence. The firm markets its devices to healthcare professionals and institutions globally. Foreign sales account for roughly 36% of the firm's total sales.

Natera Inc is a diagnostic and research company with proprietary molecular and bioinformatics technology. The company's key product offerings include its Panorama Non-Invasive Prenatal Test (NIPT) which screens for chromosomal abnormalities of a fetus as well as in twin pregnancies, typically with a blood draw from the mother, Horizon Carrier Screening (HCS) to determine carrier status for a large number of severe genetic diseases that could be passed on to the carrier’s children, Signatera molecular residual disease (MRD) test, which detects circulating tumor DNA in patients previously diagnosed with cancer to assess molecular residual disease and monitor for recurrence; and Prospera, to assess organ transplant rejection.

Spun off from Baxter International in 2000, Edwards Lifesciences designs, manufactures, and markets a range of medical devices and equipment for advanced stages of structural heart disease. It has established itself as a leader across key products, including surgical tissue heart valves, transcatheter aortic valves, and transcatheter mitral and tricuspid valve technologies. The firm derives about 60% of its total sales from outside the US.

Bayer AG is a German life-sciences group founded in 1863 and headquartered in Leverkusen. It is publicly listed and operates pharmaceuticals, consumer-health and crop-science businesses. Its healthcare operations develop, manufacture and commercialise prescription medicines and consumer products globally. Bayer announced an agreement in December 2024 to acquire HiDoc Technologies and its Cara Care digital application for irritable bowel syndrome. The transaction supported Bayer Consumer Health’s precision-health strategy and expanded its digital care offering. Cara Care was expected to remain available through Germany’s reimbursed digital-health system following completion. Bayer earns revenue principally from product sales and related healthcare businesses.

Originally spun out of Hewlett-Packard in 1999, Agilent has evolved into a leading life science and diagnostic firm. Today, Agilent's measurement technologies serve a broad base of customers with its three operating segments: life science and diagnostics, cross lab operations consisting of consumables and services, and applied end markets. Over half of its sales are generated from the biopharmaceutical, chemical, and advanced materials end markets, which we view as the stickiest end markets, but it also supports clinical lab, environmental, forensics, food, academic, and government-related organizations. The company is geographically diverse, with operations in the US and China representing the largest country concentrations.

Siemens Healthineers is engaged in therapeutic imaging, radiotherapy, laboratory, and point-of-care diagnostics. The imaging segment (56% of sales in fiscal 2025) includes magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, X-ray systems, molecular imaging, and ultrasound. The Varian segment (18% of sales) offers radiotherapy and other oncology solutions. The diagnostics segment (19%) includes in vitro diagnostics and point-of-care diagnostics. The advanced therapies (now part of precision therapy) segment (9%) products are designed to support image-guided minimally invasive treatments in cardiology, interventional radiology, and surgery. The Americas represents 44% of total sales, Europe, Middle East, and Africa 32%, and Asia-Pacific, including China (11%), the remainder.

Hindustan Unilever Ltd is an Indian consumer goods company. The firm offers different brands from distinct categories, from cosmetics and hygienic items, including detergents, soaps, shampoos, skincare, toothpaste, and deodorants, to food and beverages (tea, coffee, packaged foods). Its product portfolio contains household brands such as Lux, Lifebuoy, Pepsodent, Closeup, Pureit, Axe, Brooke Bond, Bru, Knorr, Kissan, Pond's, Vaseline, Lakme, Dove, Clinic Plus, Sunsilk, Kwality Wall's, Surf Excel, Rin, Wheel, and Fair and Lovely. The company's segments include Home Care, Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Foods, and others. Geographically, it generates a majority of its revenue from India.

Veeva is the global leading supplier of cloud-based software solutions for the life sciences industry. The company's best-of-breed offerings address operating and regulatory requirements for customers ranging from small, emerging biotechnology companies to departments of global pharmaceutical manufacturers. The company leverages its domain expertise to improve the efficiency and compliance of the underserved life sciences industry, displacing large, highly customized and dated enterprise resource planning systems that have limited flexibility. Its two main products are Veeva CRM, a customer relationship management platform for companies with a salesforce, and Veeva Vault, a content management platform that tackles various functions within any life sciences company.

Galderma was formed in 1981 as a joint venture between Nestle and L’Oreal. It subsequently became a subsidiary of Nestle, called Nestle Skin Health, before being carved out and launched as a stand-alone company in 2019, acquired by a consortium led by Sweden-based EQT fund. The company went public in March 2024 and is listed on the SIX Swiss exchange. Galderma’s science-based portfolio spans multiple dermatology categories, including injectable aesthetics, dermatological skincare, and therapeutic dermatology. It derives around 40% of net sales from the US and employs around 7,00 people.

Water sells liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, and thermal analysis tools. These analytical instruments provide essential information on various products, such as their molecular structures and physical properties, to help clients enhance the health and well-being of end users. As a percentage of sales in 2024, Waters generated 58% from biopharmaceutical customers, 31% from industrial clients, and 11% from academic/government institutions. In early 2026, Waters plans to merge with BD's life science and diagnostics business, which will substantially change those concentrations. Waters will wind up with more concentration in diagnostics (versus none now) and discovery-related life science tools.

Iqvia is the result of the 2016 merger of Quintiles, a leading global contract research organization, and IMS Health, a leading healthcare data and analytics provider. The research and development segment focuses primarily on providing outsourced late-stage clinical trials for pharmaceutical, device, and diagnostic firms. The technology and analytics segment provides aggregated information and technology services to clients in the healthcare industry, including pharmaceutical companies, providers, payers, and policymakers, as well as data and analytics capabilities for clinical trials, including virtual trials. The company also has a small contract sales business.

Illumina is a genomics company headquartered in San Diego, California, that develops and sells DNA sequencing and array-based systems for research, clinical and applied markets. It was incorporated in April 1998 by David Walt, Larry Bock, John Stuelpnagel, Anthony Czarnik and Mark Chee, and its shares trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol ILMN. Its NovaSeq, NextSeq and MiSeq sequencers and microarrays are bought by genomic research centers, pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions and clinical laboratories. Revenue comes from instrument sales and from the consumables and services used with an installed base of about 21,000 systems in 165 countries. Fiscal 2025 revenue was $4.34 billion, flat on 2024, with GAAP net income of $850 million, and the company has about 8,600 employees. It acquired the cancer-detection company GRAIL in 2021 and completed its spin-off in June 2024, keeping a 14.5% minority stake. In January 2025 it invested $20 million in Truveta alongside Regeneron to support the Truveta Genome Project.

Reckitt Benckiser was formed in 1999 through the merger of the British firm Reckitt & Colman and Dutch-based Benckiser. Recently rebranded under the corporate name Reckitt, it sells a portfolio that includes a variety of household and consumer health brands, such as Lysol, Finish, Durex, and Mucinex, many of which hold a number-one or number-two position in their categories globally. Reckitt has repositioned its portfolio and has entered the infant formula market through the acquisition of Mead Johnson in 2017, expanded its consumer health presence by acquiring Schiff Nutrition, K-Y, and Biofreeze, and has exited the food industry. The firm operates in 60 countries and sells products in more than 200, generating over 40% of core sales from emerging markets.

Idexx Laboratories primarily develops, manufactures, and distributes diagnostic products, equipment, and services for pets and livestock. Its key product lines include single-use canine and feline test kits that veterinarians can employ in the office, benchtop chemistry and hematology analyzers for test-panel analysis on-site, reference lab services, and tests to detect and manage disease in livestock. The firm also offers vet practice management software and consulting services to animal hospitals. Idexx derives roughly 35% of its revenue from outside the United States.

Haleon is one of the largest consumer health companies in the world. Formed by a combination of consumer health divisions of GSK, Pfizer, and Novartis, Haleon separated from GSK and went public in July 2022. The firm generates 60% of sales from global power brands including Sensodyne, Advil, Centrum, and Poligrip, that play in many geographies and are often leaders in their respective categories. It also has a number of local brands, including Emergen-C, Eno, Tums, and Caltrate, that are more tailored to regional needs and have strong local brand equity. Overall, Haleon’s brands tackle a variety of silos within consumer health including oral care, digestive health, pain relief, and nutrition.

Roper Technologies is a holding company focused on acquiring, managing, and developing niche market-leading technology businesses. The company operates a decentralized business model whereby each portfolio company operates independently from the others. Roper positions itself as a free cash flow compounder, whereby excess free cash flow generated by its portfolio businesses is repatriated to the parent company, which is then utilized to acquire additional businesses. Presently, the company operates 30 distinct businesses with over three-fourths of the revenue coming from software products and over two-thirds of the revenue coming from recurring and recurring sources.

Estée Lauder is a leader in the global prestige beauty market, participating across skin care (49% of fiscal 2025 sales), makeup (29%), fragrance (17%), and hair care and others (5%). Top selling brands include Estée Lauder, Clinique, M.A.C, La Mer, Jo Malone London, Aveda, Bobbi Brown, and Origins. The firm operates in more than 150 countries, generating 31% of revenue from the Americas, 37% from Europe, the Middle East and Africa (including travel retail), and 32% from Asia-Pacific. Estée Lauder sells its products through department stores, travel retail, specialty multibrand beauty stores, brand-dedicated freestanding stores, e-commerce, salons/spas, and perfumeries.

Kenvue is the world’s largest pure-play consumer health company by sales, generating over $15 billion in annual revenue. Formerly known as Johnson & Johnson’s consumer segment, Kenvue spun off and went public in May 2023. It operates in a variety of categories within consumer health, such as cough, cold and allergy care, pain management, face and body care, and oral care, as well as women’s health. Its portfolio has some of the most well-known brands in the space, including Tylenol, Listerine, Johnson’s, Aveeno, and Neutrogena. Kenvue announced November 2025 that it signed a deal to be fully acquired by Kimberly-Clark with the deal expected to close during the second half of 2026.

DexCom designs and commercializes continuous glucose monitoring systems for diabetic patients. CGM systems serve as an alternative to the traditional blood glucose meter process, and the company is evolving its CGM systems to provide integration with insulin pumps from Insulet and Tandem for automatic insulin delivery. DexCom's CGMs are available through medical equipment distributors as well as retail pharmacies.

ResMed is one of the largest respiratory care device companies globally, primarily developing and supplying flow generators, masks and accessories for the treatment of sleep apnea. Increasing diagnosis of sleep apnea combined with ageing populations and increasing prevalence of obesity is resulting in a structurally growing market. The company earns roughly two thirds of its revenue in the Americas and the balance across other regions dominated by Europe, Japan and Australia. Recent developments and acquisitions have focused on digital health as ResMed is aiming to differentiate itself through the provision of clinical data for use by the patient, medical care advisor and payer in the out-of-hospital setting.

Two distinct customer groups constitute Henkel. The consumer segment (around 47% of consolidated 2025 sales) is laundry and home-care, including the Persil and Purex laundry detergent brands; haircare, including the Schwarzkopf brand; and other brands, including Dial in hand soap. The adhesive technologies segment makes up the remaining 53% of sales. Sales in Europe accounted for 38% of the firm's consolidated total in 2025, while Asia-Pacific and North America accounted for 17% and 26%, respectively.

Mettler-Toledo supplies weighing and precision instruments to customers in the life sciences (around 55% of sales), industrial (around 40%), and food retail (around 5%) industries. Its products include laboratory and retail scales, pipettes, pH meters, thermal analysis equipment, titrators, metal detectors, and X-ray analyzers. Mettler leads the market for weighing instrumentation and controls more than 50% of the market for lab balances. The business is geographically diversified, with the Americas accounting for about 37% of sales, Europe about 27%, China about 16% and the rest of the world about 20%.

Alcon is one of the leading visioncare companies in the world. Following nine years as a Novartis subsidiary, it was spun off as a public company in April 2019. Alcon operates in two segments: visioncare and surgical. Visioncare comprises contact lenses, lenscare solutions, and a suite of ocular health products. With brands like Dailies, Total1, and Air Optix, Alcon controls about one fourth of the US contact lens market. Surgical comprises intraocular lenses, ophthalmic surgical equipment, and consumables used during surgeries. Its main products include Centurion, a phacoemulsification device used during cataract surgeries, and a portfolio of IOLs including PanOptix and Vivity. Alcon has one of the largest installed bases of eye surgical equipment in the world.

GE HealthCare Technologies is a leading medical technology firm with leading market share in imaging and ultrasound equipment. The company reports four major segments: imaging (45% of revenue), advanced visualization solutions (26%), patient care solutions (15%), and pharmaceutical diagnostics (14%). The company’s sales are geographically diverse, with the United States, EMEA, China, and the rest of the world accounting for 46%, 26%, 11%, and 17% respectively. We estimate approximately half of its revenue is recurring, which consists of servicing (about one third of revenue), pharmaceutical diagnostics (about 10%-15%), and digital solutions (just over 5%).

Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co Ltd is a developer, manufacturer, and supplier of medical devices. The company is focused on the medical industry in the fields of Patient Monitoring & Life Support, InVitro Diagnostics, and Medical Imaging.

Labcorp is one of the nation's two largest independent clinical laboratories, with roughly 20% of the independent lab market. The company operates approximately 2,000 patient-service centers, offering a broad range of 5,000 clinical lab tests, ranging from uncomplicated routine blood and urine screens to complex oncology and genomic testing.

Quest Diagnostics is a leading independent provider of diagnostic testing, information, and services in the US. The company generates over 95% of its revenue through clinical testing, anatomic pathology, esoteric testing, and substance abuse testing with specimens collected at its national network of roughly 2,300 patient service centers, as well as multiple doctors offices and hospitals. The firm also runs a much smaller diagnostic solutions segment that provides clinical trials testing, risk-assessment services, and information technology solutions.

Ulta Beauty is the largest specialized beauty retailer in the US with about 1,500 freestanding stores. The firm offers cosmetics (39% of 2024 sales), fragrances (13%), skin care (23%), and hair care products (19%). It also has salon services, including hair, makeup, skin, and brow, that account for about 4% of its revenue and drive traffic. Outside of the US, Ulta acquired premium beauty retailer Space NK and its 83 stores in the UK and Ireland in 2025, is opening franchised stores in Mexico, and has formed a joint venture to expand into the Middle East. In addition, Ulta collects royalties through its Target partnership (set to end in 2026) and credit card revenue. Ulta was founded in 1990 and is based in Bolingbrook, Illinois.

Koninklijke Philips is a diversified global healthcare company operating in three segments: diagnosis and treatment, connected care, and personal health. Nearly 50% of the company's revenue comes from the diagnosis and treatment segment, which features imaging systems, ultrasound equipment, and image-guided therapy solutions. The connected care segment (under 30% of revenue) encompasses monitoring and analytics systems for hospitals, informatics business, and also houses the sleep and respiratory care segment. Personal health business (remainder of revenue) is mainly oral health and personal care product lines, which include electric toothbrushes and men's grooming and personal-care products.

Sartorius Stedim Biotech is a leading provider of bioprocessing solutions. Its sells equipment and consumables for fermentation, filtration, fluid management, purification, and cell culture media for manufacturing biologic drugs and has a focus on single-use technology. It is a subsidiary of Sartorius AG, which has 71.5% ownership and 83% voting control. The business is geographically diverse, with 35% of sales from the Americas, 42% from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, 15% from Asia excluding China, and 8% from China.