Epoch Investment Partners Inc. Increases Stock Position in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

Epoch Investment Partners Inc. increased its position in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 3.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 362,507 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after buying an additional 11,241 shares during the quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. owned about 0.78% of Ulta Beauty worth $157,665,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Virtu Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 50.3% during the 3rd quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 5,086 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,979,000 after purchasing an additional 1,702 shares during the period. Westside Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 151.5% in the third quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 83 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,920 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $1,136,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. Rule One Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty during the 3rd quarter valued at $2,179,000. Finally, Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co boosted its position in Ulta Beauty by 12.4% during the 3rd quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co now owns 9,589 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $3,731,000 after purchasing an additional 1,057 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Ulta Beauty

In other Ulta Beauty news, insider Jodi J. Caro sold 902 shares of Ulta Beauty stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.16, for a total transaction of $332,982.32. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 7,632 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,817,429.12. The trade was a 10.57 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.39% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ULTA shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Ulta Beauty from $480.00 to $475.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $475.00 to $400.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Telsey Advisory Group reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Ulta Beauty in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $505.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Argus cut shares of Ulta Beauty from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ulta Beauty has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $427.61.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

Ulta Beauty stock opened at $357.75 on Friday. Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a 12-month low of $309.01 and a 12-month high of $460.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.21 billion, a PE ratio of 14.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.16. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $357.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $382.26.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The specialty retailer reported $8.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.13 by $1.33. The firm had revenue of $3.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.47 billion. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.58% and a return on equity of 51.95%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $8.08 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Ulta Beauty, Inc. will post 23.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.