Gotham Asset Management LLC Boosts Holdings in Ulta Beauty Inc. $ULTA

Key Points

• Gotham Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Ulta Beauty Inc. by 120.9% in the first quarter, owning approximately 60,874 shares worth about $22.3 million.
• Several institutional investors significantly boosted their holdings in Ulta Beauty, with Price T Rowe Associates and GAMMA Investing increasing their stakes by 128.2% and 38,770.6% respectively.
• Ulta Beauty reported excellent earnings of $5.78 EPS for the last quarter, surpassing estimates, with a revenue of $2.79 billion, up 9.3% year-over-year.

Gotham Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA - Free Report) by 120.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 60,874 shares of the specialty retailer's stock after acquiring an additional 33,319 shares during the quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC owned 0.13% of Ulta Beauty worth $22,313,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ULTA. 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 worth $449,021,000 after buying an additional 688,267 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 38,770.6% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 443,513 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $162,565,000 after buying an additional 442,372 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 81.7% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 913,600 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $334,871,000 after purchasing an additional 410,900 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 64.8% during the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 931,557 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $341,453,000 after purchasing an additional 366,147 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 5,117.0% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 220,312 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $80,753,000 after purchasing an additional 216,089 shares in the last quarter. 90.39% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on ULTA. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, August 22nd. DA Davidson increased their price objective 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. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Ulta Beauty from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 22nd. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $640.00 to $680.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 29th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $425.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ulta Beauty presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $543.13.

Ulta Beauty Trading Down 2.8%

Ulta Beauty stock traded down $14.64 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $514.86. 880,236 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 902,338. Ulta Beauty Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $309.01 and a fifty-two week high of $539.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.74, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.06. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $504.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $433.02.

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

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.