Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Raised to Hold at StockNews.com

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) was upgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Tuesday.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $385.00 to $420.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Ulta Beauty from $505.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. B. Riley upgraded Ulta Beauty from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $330.00 to $430.00 in a report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $455.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $335.00 to $410.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $458.78.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

ULTA opened at $415.14 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $19.25 billion, a PE ratio of 16.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $400.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $383.64. Ulta Beauty has a 1 year low of $318.17 and a 1 year high of $574.76.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The specialty retailer reported $5.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.45 by $0.69. The business had revenue of $2.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.58% and a return on equity of 51.95%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $5.07 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ulta Beauty will post 23.57 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC increased its stake in Ulta Beauty by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 2,109 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $917,000 after buying an additional 108 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 14.0% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 32,031 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $14,015,000 after purchasing an additional 3,935 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 170.4% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,141 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $496,000 after acquiring an additional 719 shares during the last quarter. Synovus Financial Corp grew its position in Ulta Beauty by 5.2% in the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 2,556 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $995,000 after acquiring an additional 126 shares in the last quarter. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Ulta Beauty during the third quarter valued at $212,000. 90.39% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ulta Beauty Company Profile

Ulta Beauty, Inc operates as a specialty beauty retailer in the United States. The company offers branded and private label beauty products, including cosmetics, fragrance, haircare, skincare, bath and body products, professional hair products, and salon styling tools through its Ulta Beauty stores, shop-in-shops, Ulta.com website, and its mobile applications.