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

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on ULTA. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $505.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $472.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Citigroup raised their target price on Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $457.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Raymond James decreased their price target on Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $440.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $385.00 to $420.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $460.30.

Ulta Beauty Stock Down 3.1 %

Shares of ULTA stock opened at $415.14 on Tuesday. Ulta Beauty has a 12-month low of $318.17 and a 12-month high of $574.76. The company has a market capitalization of $19.25 billion, a PE ratio of 16.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.28. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $401.20 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $383.86.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ulta Beauty

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 180,713.0% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,238,569 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $481,952,000 after buying an additional 1,237,884 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Ulta Beauty by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,188,730 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $461,059,000 after purchasing an additional 10,153 shares during the period. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board bought a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty during the 3rd quarter worth $359,480,000. Champlain Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 610,400 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $237,519,000 after buying an additional 31,540 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt grew its position in Ulta Beauty by 14.4% during the third quarter. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt now owns 516,405 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $200,944,000 after buying an additional 65,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

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.