Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Raised to “Neutral” at B. Riley

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) was upgraded by equities research analysts at B. Riley from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on ULTA. William Blair downgraded shares of Ulta Beauty from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Loop Capital upped their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $470.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Ulta Beauty from $505.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on Ulta Beauty from $390.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $441.22.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

Shares of ULTA opened at $431.30 on Tuesday. Ulta Beauty has a 1-year low of $318.17 and a 1-year high of $574.76. The stock has a market cap of $20.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.28. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $398.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $383.10.

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

Institutional Trading of Ulta Beauty

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ULTA. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Ulta Beauty by 180,713.0% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,238,569 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $481,952,000 after purchasing an additional 1,237,884 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 0.9% during 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 buying an additional 10,153 shares during the last quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board acquired a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty during the third quarter worth approximately $359,480,000. Champlain Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 31,540 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt raised its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 14.4% in the third quarter. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt now owns 516,405 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $200,944,000 after acquiring an additional 65,000 shares in the last quarter. 90.39% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.