Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Shares Up 6.3% After Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• Ulta Beauty's stock price surged 6.3% after Barclays upgraded its price target from $589 to $617 and maintained an overweight rating.
• The company reported $5.78 earnings per share for the last quarter, significantly exceeding the consensus estimate of $5.03, alongside a revenue of $2.79 billion.
• Analysts have mixed ratings on Ulta Beauty, with a consensus of 13 Buy ratings, 13 Hold ratings, and 1 Sell rating, translating to a price target consensus of $536.75.

Shares of Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA - Get Free Report) traded up 6.3% on Tuesday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $589.00 to $617.00. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Ulta Beauty traded as high as $523.98 and last traded at $523.67. 796,624 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 10% from the average session volume of 884,400 shares. The stock had previously closed at $492.73.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Cowen reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Ulta Beauty in a report on Friday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $400.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 29th. DA Davidson lifted their target price 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. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $437.00 price objective (up previously from $386.00) on shares of Ulta Beauty in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Ulta Beauty from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, August 22nd. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $543.13.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ulta Beauty

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ULTA. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty during the second quarter worth $275,000. Neuberger Berman Group LLC increased its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 22.0% during the 2nd quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 39,422 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $18,442,000 after purchasing an additional 7,113 shares during the last quarter. Stance Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $3,809,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty in the second quarter worth $479,000. Finally, Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in Ulta Beauty by 52.0% during the 2nd quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 76 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.39% of the company's stock.

Ulta Beauty Stock Performance

The company's fifty day simple moving average is $504.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $432.06. The company has a market capitalization of $23.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.06.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA - Get Free Report) last announced 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. The firm had revenue of $2.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.66 billion. Ulta Beauty had a return on equity of 48.78% and a net margin of 10.31%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $5.30 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ulta Beauty Inc. will post 23.96 EPS for the current 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.