Ulta Beauty Inc. $ULTA Shares Sold by Northern Trust Corp

Key Points

• Northern Trust Corp reduced its stake in Ulta Beauty by 4.4%, now owning 537,240 shares valued at approximately $196.92 million.
• Ulta Beauty reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings, with $6.70 EPS compared to the consensus estimate of $5.73.
• The stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" from analysts, with an average price target of $480.17.

Northern Trust Corp reduced its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA - Free Report) by 4.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 537,240 shares of the specialty retailer's stock after selling 24,915 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp owned approximately 1.19% of Ulta Beauty worth $196,920,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of ULTA. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 38,770.6% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 443,513 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $162,565,000 after acquiring an additional 442,372 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 81.7% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 913,600 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $334,871,000 after acquiring an additional 410,900 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 5,117.0% during the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 220,312 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $80,753,000 after acquiring an additional 216,089 shares during the period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty during the 4th quarter valued at about $73,780,000. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty during the 1st quarter valued at about $59,882,000. 90.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Ulta Beauty from $440.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Ulta Beauty from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Truist Financial raised their target price on Ulta Beauty from $364.00 to $386.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Piper Sandler restated a "neutral" rating and set a $437.00 target price (up from $386.00) on shares of Ulta Beauty in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on Ulta Beauty from $465.00 to $490.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $487.96.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

ULTA stock traded up $9.32 during trading on Friday, hitting $529.50. The stock had a trading volume of 624,262 shares, compared to its average volume of 563,458. Ulta Beauty Inc. has a twelve month low of $309.01 and a twelve month high of $534.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.68, a PEG ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 1.12. The company's 50-day moving average price is $494.13 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $422.22.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The specialty retailer reported $6.70 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $5.73 by $0.97. The business had revenue of $2.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.79 billion. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.45% and a return on equity of 49.73%. The business's revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $6.47 EPS. Ulta Beauty has set its FY 2025 guidance at 22.650-23.200 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ulta Beauty Inc. will post 23.96 EPS 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.