Citigroup Raises Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Price Target to $390.00

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) had its price target boosted by stock analysts at Citigroup from $345.00 to $390.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the specialty retailer’s stock. Citigroup’s price target points to a potential upside of 3.93% from the company’s current price.

ULTA has been the subject of several other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $325.00 to $300.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 30th. Barclays lifted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $328.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 30th. UBS Group reduced their price target on Ulta Beauty from $550.00 to $505.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on Ulta Beauty from $426.00 to $424.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $435.00 price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $422.58.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

Shares of Ulta Beauty stock opened at $375.25 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $17.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.33. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $374.43 and its 200-day moving average is $376.67. Ulta Beauty has a one year low of $318.17 and a one year high of $574.76.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 29th. The specialty retailer reported $5.30 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.47 by ($0.17). The firm had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.61 billion. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.68% and a return on equity of 54.02%. The company’s revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $6.02 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Ulta Beauty will post 23.07 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ulta Beauty

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Sage Capital Advisors llc lifted its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. Sage Capital Advisors llc now owns 525 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $203,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in Ulta Beauty by 4.7% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 627 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $244,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 83.3% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 66 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. AdvisorNet Financial Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 5.0% during the 2nd quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 695 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $268,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the period. Finally, Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV boosted its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 3,495 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,349,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.