Notches and abrupt geometry variations are unavoidable in practice, but they result in stress field irregularities and are the reason for failure in majority of structural components. The aim of the present work is to study stress concentration on composite materials. To accomplish, the Stroh formalism is introduced to obtain the analytical solution of the stress distribution around the border an elliptical hole in an infinity plate subjected to general in-plane applied nominal stresses. The classical laminate theory is used to obtain equivalent properties of symmetric laminates since it could be modeled as a homogeneous plate with equivalent stiffness. Tsai-Wu, Puck and LaRC05 criteria are discussed in detail and applied for different load conditions for laminate plates with circular and elliptical holes. The multiaxial stress distribution along the hole border caused by the thickness effect is studied using the plane strain hypothesis. Finite plates are analyzed using the commercial finite element package ANSYS considering plane stress hypothesis to compare the approximation solutions available in literature. At last, a micromechanics based approach using the Halpin-Tsai model to estimate the lamina mechanical properties according to the fiber volumetric fraction is presented to evaluate its influence on stress concentration.