Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the twenty-four research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have assigned a hold recommendation and twelve have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $427.13.

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. DA Davidson cut their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $510.00 to $415.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 14th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $360.00 to $310.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 14th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ulta Beauty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Loop Capital increased their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $480.00 to $475.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ulta Beauty

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ULTA. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,199,935 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $520,587,000 after purchasing an additional 11,205 shares during the period. Capital World Investors bought a new position in Ulta Beauty during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $430,674,000. Deutsche Bank AG raised its stake in Ulta Beauty by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 655,561 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $285,123,000 after buying an additional 9,291 shares during the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 5.4% in the third quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 610,400 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $237,519,000 after acquiring an additional 31,540 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 14.7% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 562,155 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $244,498,000 after acquiring an additional 72,004 shares during the last quarter. 90.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

Shares of Ulta Beauty stock opened at $370.75 on Friday. Ulta Beauty has a 1 year low of $309.01 and a 1 year high of $529.67. The firm has a market cap of $17.19 billion, a PE ratio of 14.84, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $376.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $386.59.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 13th. The specialty retailer reported $8.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.13 by $1.33. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.58% and a return on equity of 51.95%. The company had revenue of $3.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.47 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $8.08 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ulta Beauty will post 23.96 earnings per share for the current 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.