Ritholtz Wealth Management Invests $631,000 in Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

Ritholtz Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 1,721 shares of the specialty retailer's stock, valued at approximately $631,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 28.7% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 166 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $72,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 3,973 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $1,663,000 after acquiring an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 26.4% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 73,137 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $31,809,000 after acquiring an additional 15,258 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 10,857 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $4,722,000 after acquiring an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Groupama Asset Managment raised its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 92.1% during the fourth quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 2,157 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $939,000 after acquiring an additional 1,034 shares during the last quarter. 90.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Argus downgraded Ulta Beauty from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, April 14th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $465.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Ulta Beauty from $467.00 to $404.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 14th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $425.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $465.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $462.22.

Ulta Beauty Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:ULTA opened at $473.46 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $21.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.49, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.09. Ulta Beauty Inc. has a 12-month low of $309.01 and a 12-month high of $491.98. The business's 50 day moving average is $412.63 and its 200 day moving average is $397.41.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The specialty retailer reported $6.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.73 by $0.97. The company had revenue of $2.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.79 billion. Ulta Beauty had a return on equity of 49.73% and a net margin of 10.45%. Ulta Beauty's quarterly revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $6.47 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ulta Beauty Inc. will post 23.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Jodi J. Caro sold 902 shares of Ulta Beauty stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.16, for a total transaction of $332,982.32. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,632 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,817,429.12. This trade represents a 10.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ulta Beauty 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.