Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) Short Interest Down 13.6% in February

Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 2,360,000 shares, a decrease of 13.6% from the February 13th total of 2,730,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 949,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.5 days. Currently, 5.1% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. William Blair cut shares of Ulta Beauty from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $405.00 to $365.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $480.00 to $475.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Ulta Beauty in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $427.13.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ulta Beauty

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC now owns 665 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $289,000 after buying an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. RWA Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. RWA Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,867 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $812,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Lido Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 626 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $272,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC lifted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 36.9% during the 4th quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 115 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stonegate Investment Group LLC lifted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC now owns 6,623 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $2,881,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

Ulta Beauty Trading Down 0.0 %

Ulta Beauty stock opened at $343.72 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $380.41 and a 200-day moving average price of $386.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.94 billion, a PE ratio of 13.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.34. Ulta Beauty has a 12-month low of $309.01 and a 12-month high of $532.70.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The specialty retailer reported $8.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $7.13 by $1.33. The firm had revenue of $3.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.47 billion. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.58% and a return on equity of 51.95%. The business’s revenue was down 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $8.08 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ulta Beauty will post 23.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.