Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Earns Outperform Rating from Telsey Advisory Group

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating restated by research analysts at Telsey Advisory Group in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $500.00 price target on the specialty retailer’s stock. Telsey Advisory Group’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 29.67% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $350.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $565.00 to $475.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $480.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 15th. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $580.00 to $520.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $605.00 to $476.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ulta Beauty has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $512.65.

Ulta Beauty Trading Up 1.9 %

NASDAQ:ULTA opened at $385.58 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $426.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $470.07. The company has a market cap of $18.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.36. Ulta Beauty has a twelve month low of $368.02 and a twelve month high of $574.76.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 30th. The specialty retailer reported $6.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.19 by $0.28. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 11.52% and a return on equity of 61.64%. The firm had revenue of $2.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.72 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $6.88 earnings per share. Ulta Beauty’s revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Ulta Beauty will post 26.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Ulta Beauty declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, March 14th that permits the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the specialty retailer to reacquire up to 7.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Anita Jane Ryan sold 3,102 shares of Ulta Beauty stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $525.25, for a total value of $1,629,325.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 2,705 shares in the company, valued at $1,420,801.25. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Anita Jane Ryan sold 3,102 shares of Ulta Beauty stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $525.25, for a total value of $1,629,325.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 2,705 shares in the company, valued at $1,420,801.25. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Catherine Ann Halligan sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.26, for a total transaction of $263,130.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 1,665 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $876,222.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 24,552 shares of company stock worth $12,920,326 over the last 90 days. 0.39% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ulta Beauty

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Morgan Stanley raised its position in Ulta Beauty by 56.7% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,538,533 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $614,568,000 after purchasing an additional 556,809 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Ulta Beauty by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 575,658 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $229,947,000 after purchasing an additional 21,828 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Ulta Beauty by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 570,913 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $228,051,000 after purchasing an additional 33,508 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in Ulta Beauty by 33.6% in the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 544,072 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $284,484,000 after purchasing an additional 136,725 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Ulta Beauty in the 4th quarter valued at $263,192,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

About Ulta Beauty

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.