Mike Smith Sells 500 Shares of Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Stock

Key Points

• Mike Smith, Director of Ulta Beauty, sold 500 shares at an average price of $528.43, reducing his ownership by 18.10% to 2,263 shares.
• Ulta Beauty reported a quarterly EPS of $5.78, exceeding analysts' expectations of $5.03, with a revenue of $2.79 billion, up 9.3% year-over-year.
• Institutional investors own 90.39% of Ulta Beauty's stock, indicating significant interest from large financial entities.

Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA - Get Free Report) Director Mike Smith sold 500 shares of Ulta Beauty stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.43, for a total value of $264,215.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 2,263 shares in the company, valued at $1,195,837.09. This represents a 18.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

Ulta Beauty stock traded up $4.95 during trading on Monday, reaching $519.81. 720,522 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 893,701. Ulta Beauty Inc. has a 52-week low of $309.01 and a 52-week high of $539.00. The company has a market capitalization of $23.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.93, 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 two-hundred day simple moving average is $433.02.

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 firm had revenue of $2.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.66 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.30 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ulta Beauty Inc. will post 23.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ulta Beauty

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ULTA. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its position in Ulta Beauty by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,255 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $981,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Interval Partners LP acquired a new stake in Ulta Beauty in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,724,000. LRT Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ulta Beauty in the 4th quarter valued at about $333,000. LMR Partners LLP acquired a new stake in Ulta Beauty in the 4th quarter valued at about $22,529,000. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 174.5% in the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 14,310 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $6,224,000 after acquiring an additional 9,096 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.39% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on ULTA shares. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $650.00 target price on Ulta Beauty in a research report on Friday, August 29th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $575.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, August 29th. Raymond James Financial restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $605.00 target price (up previously from $580.00) on shares of Ulta Beauty in a research report on Friday, August 29th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $510.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $543.13.

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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