Alliancebernstein L.P. Raises Stock Position in Ulta Beauty Inc. $ULTA

Key Points

• Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its ownership in Ulta Beauty Inc. by 139.1% in the first quarter, acquiring 101,737 additional shares for a total of 174,874 shares valued at approximately $64 million.
• Ulta Beauty reported a strong earnings result with $5.78 earnings per share for the quarter, surpassing the consensus estimate of $5.03, along with a revenue increase of 9.3% year-over-year.
• Numerous research analysts have raised their price targets for Ulta Beauty, with estimates ranging up to $625, indicating a positive outlook on the company's performance.

Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA - Free Report) by 139.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 174,874 shares of the specialty retailer's stock after buying an additional 101,737 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. owned 0.39% of Ulta Beauty worth $64,098,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 128.2% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,225,023 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $449,021,000 after purchasing an additional 688,267 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 64.8% during the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 931,557 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $341,453,000 after acquiring an additional 366,147 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 81.7% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 913,600 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $334,871,000 after buying an additional 410,900 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 10.9% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 813,639 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $298,231,000 after buying an additional 79,666 shares during the period. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in Ulta Beauty by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 536,169 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $196,527,000 after purchasing an additional 20,124 shares during the period. 90.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Mike C. Smith sold 500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.43, for a total transaction of $264,215.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,263 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,195,837.09. This represents a 18.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.39% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ulta Beauty Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of ULTA traded down $5.96 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $513.85. 699,584 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 916,039. The company's fifty day moving average price is $506.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $434.68. The company has a market capitalization of $23.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.06. Ulta Beauty Inc. has a 12 month low of $309.01 and a 12 month high of $539.00.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 28th. The specialty retailer reported $5.78 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.03 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $2.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.66 billion. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.31% and a return on equity of 48.78%. Ulta Beauty's quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $5.30 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Ulta Beauty Inc. will post 23.96 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ULTA has been the topic of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $595.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, August 29th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $364.00 to $386.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Ulta Beauty from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, August 22nd. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $585.00 to $625.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 29th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ulta Beauty currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $543.13.

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.