Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $350.00 to $370.00. The stock had previously closed at $431.30, but opened at $450.02. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an underweight rating on the stock. Ulta Beauty shares last traded at $445.54, with a volume of 449,700 shares traded.

ULTA has been the topic of a number of other reports. Citigroup upped their price target on Ulta Beauty from $390.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. DA Davidson upped their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $435.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ulta Beauty from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, B. Riley upgraded shares of Ulta Beauty from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $442.09.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ulta Beauty

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 1,237,884 shares in the last quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board bought a new stake in Ulta Beauty during the 3rd quarter valued at $359,480,000. Holocene Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 3,246.2% in the 3rd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 346,262 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $134,737,000 after acquiring an additional 335,914 shares during the period. Atreides Management LP bought a new stake in Ulta Beauty during the third quarter valued at about $73,069,000. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 87.3% during the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 337,882 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $130,380,000 after buying an additional 157,497 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

Ulta Beauty Stock Performance

The business’s fifty day moving average price is $398.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $383.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.74, a PEG ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.28.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 51.95% and a net margin of 10.58%. The firm had revenue of $2.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $5.07 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Ulta Beauty, Inc. will post 23.57 earnings per share for the current 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.