Goelzer Investment Management Inc. Sells 7,627 Shares of Ulta Beauty Inc. $ULTA

Key Points

• Goelzer Investment Management Inc. significantly reduced its holdings in Ulta Beauty Inc. by 88.7% during the second quarter, leaving them with only 967 shares, valued at $452,000.
• Analysts have raised their price targets for Ulta Beauty, with Citigroup moving to $550 and Robert W. Baird to $600, indicating overall confidence in the stock's future performance.
• Ulta Beauty reported a 9.3% increase in quarterly revenue year-over-year, reaching $2.79 billion, and exceeded earnings expectations with an EPS of $5.78, surpassing the consensus estimate by $0.75.

Goelzer Investment Management Inc. reduced its stake in Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA - Free Report) by 88.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 967 shares of the specialty retailer's stock after selling 7,627 shares during the quarter. Goelzer Investment Management Inc.'s holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $452,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wambolt & Associates LLC raised its stake in Ulta Beauty by 1.6% in the first quarter. Wambolt & Associates LLC now owns 1,673 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $626,000 after buying an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 32.5% in the first quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 110 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 707 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $259,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 5.0% during the 1st quarter. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC now owns 625 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $229,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LaFleur & Godfrey LLC raised its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC now owns 2,485 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $911,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. 90.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Mike C. Smith sold 500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.43, for a total transaction of $264,215.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 2,263 shares in the company, valued at $1,195,837.09. The trade was a 18.10% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.17% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $530.00 to $584.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, August 29th. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $610.00 price target on shares of Ulta Beauty in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $605.00 price objective (up previously from $580.00) on shares of Ulta Beauty in a report on Friday, August 29th. Wall Street Zen raised Ulta Beauty from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 22nd. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $543.13.

Ulta Beauty Trading Down 2.5%

Ulta Beauty stock traded down $13.34 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $521.47. 1,150,760 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 888,832. The stock has a market cap of $23.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.06. Ulta Beauty Inc. has a 1-year low of $309.01 and a 1-year high of $539.00. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $514.04 and a two-hundred day moving average of $443.82.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 28th. The specialty retailer reported $5.78 earnings per share 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.66 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $5.30 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict 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.