VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Acquires Shares of 82,500 Ulta Beauty Inc. $ULTA

Key Points

• The Virginia Retirement Systems ET Al acquired 82,500 shares of Ulta Beauty Inc., valued at approximately $38.6 million, increasing its stake to about 0.18%.
• Ulta Beauty reported a strong quarterly earnings result, with EPS of $5.78, exceeding analyst expectations, and a revenue of $2.79 billion, up 9.3% from the previous year.
• Analysts have set new price targets for Ulta Beauty, with Raymond James upping their target to $605 and Goldman Sachs to $584, reflecting a positive outlook for the company.

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 82,500 shares of the specialty retailer's stock, valued at approximately $38,595,000. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al owned approximately 0.18% of Ulta Beauty as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ULTA. Wayfinding Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty during the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Hemington Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 142.9% during the second quarter. Hemington Wealth Management now owns 68 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Ransom Advisory Ltd bought a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty during the first quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Costello Asset Management INC bought a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty during the first quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 178.4% during the first quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 103 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.39% of the company's stock.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

Shares of ULTA stock opened at $533.51 on Friday. Ulta Beauty Inc. has a 12-month low of $309.01 and a 12-month high of $572.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.08. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $531.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $470.40.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ULTA has been the subject of several recent research reports. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $605.00 target price (up from $580.00) on shares of Ulta Beauty in a report on Friday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Ulta Beauty from $425.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Ulta Beauty from $530.00 to $584.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 29th. Citigroup upped their target price on Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. Finally, Cowen reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Ulta Beauty in a report on Friday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ulta Beauty currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $550.38.

Insider Transactions at Ulta Beauty

In other Ulta Beauty news, Director Mike C. Smith sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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. This trade represents a 18.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.17% of the company's stock.

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.

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