Ulta Beauty Inc. $ULTA Shares Bought by Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC

Key Points

• Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in Ulta Beauty Inc. by 36.6% to 2,887 shares, valued at approximately $1,058,000.
• Analysts have raised price targets for Ulta Beauty, with Bank of America and UBS Group setting new targets of $575 and $680 respectively, indicating a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy".
• Ulta Beauty reported a quarterly earnings per share of $5.78, surpassing estimates and reflecting a 9.3% year-over-year revenue growth to $2.79 billion.

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA - Free Report) by 36.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,887 shares of the specialty retailer's stock after buying an additional 773 shares during the quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC's holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $1,058,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,255 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $981,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in Ulta Beauty by 174.5% during the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 14,310 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $6,224,000 after acquiring an additional 9,096 shares during the period. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV boosted its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 13.7% in the 4th quarter. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV now owns 17,421 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $7,703,000 after acquiring an additional 2,105 shares during the last quarter. Man Group plc increased its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 65.2% in the fourth quarter. Man Group plc now owns 205,503 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $89,379,000 after acquiring an additional 81,102 shares during the period. Finally, Mufg Securities Americas Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty during the fourth quarter worth $303,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.39% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Mike C. Smith sold 500 shares of Ulta Beauty stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.43, for a total transaction of $264,215.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 2,263 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,195,837.09. This trade represents a 18.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.17% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ULTA has been the topic of several recent research reports. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $510.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $585.00 to $625.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 29th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Ulta Beauty from $425.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Ulta Beauty from $595.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, August 29th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $589.00 to $617.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ulta Beauty has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $543.13.

Ulta Beauty Stock Down 1.4%

Shares of Ulta Beauty stock traded down $7.27 on Friday, reaching $514.62. The company's stock had a trading volume of 454,397 shares, compared to its average volume of 881,849. The company has a market capitalization of $23.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.73, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.06. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $509.07 and a 200-day moving average price of $437.35. Ulta Beauty Inc. has a 52-week low of $309.01 and a 52-week high of $539.00.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 28th. The specialty retailer reported $5.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $5.30 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ulta Beauty Inc. will post 23.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.