Advisory Alpha LLC Takes $215,000 Position in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

Advisory Alpha LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 495 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $215,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Simon Quick Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter worth $203,000. Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 43.8% in the fourth quarter. Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 837 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $364,000 after purchasing an additional 255 shares in the last quarter. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC bought a new stake in Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter worth $208,000. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 53.4% in the fourth quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 2,196 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $955,000 after purchasing an additional 764 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Harbor Investment Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 787 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $342,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. 90.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ULTA. Raymond James decreased their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $440.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 14th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $505.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ulta Beauty from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $430.00 to $500.00 in a report on Tuesday. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $460.00 to $475.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Loop Capital upped their price target 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ulta Beauty has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $459.22.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

ULTA opened at $418.55 on Friday. Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a one year low of $318.17 and a one year high of $574.76. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $406.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $385.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.28.

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. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.58% and a return on equity of 51.95%. The business had revenue of $2.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $5.07 earnings per share. Ulta Beauty’s revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ulta Beauty, Inc. will post 23.93 EPS for the current year.

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.