Shell Asset Management Co. Boosts Position in Ulta Beauty Inc. $ULTA

Shell Asset Management Co. lifted its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA - Free Report) by 23.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,552 shares of the specialty retailer's stock after acquiring an additional 665 shares during the period. Shell Asset Management Co.'s holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $1,662,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 128.2% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,225,023 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $449,021,000 after purchasing an additional 688,267 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased 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 worth $334,871,000 after purchasing an additional 410,900 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 366,147 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased 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 worth $80,753,000 after purchasing an additional 216,089 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 237.7% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 270,420 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $96,674,000 after purchasing an additional 190,353 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.39% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ULTA has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $595.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $650.00 target price on Ulta Beauty in a research report on Friday, August 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $530.00 to $584.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, August 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $400.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $549.21.

Insider Activity at Ulta Beauty

In other news, Director Mike C. Smith sold 500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.43, for a total transaction of $264,215.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,263 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,195,837.09. The trade was 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 the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.17% of the company's stock.

Ulta Beauty Stock Performance

Shares of Ulta Beauty stock opened at $565.81 on Thursday. Ulta Beauty Inc. has a one year low of $309.01 and a one year high of $572.23. The company has a market cap of $25.37 billion, a PE ratio of 21.70, a P/E/G ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 1.08. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $526.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $461.35.

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

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