American National Bank & Trust Acquires Shares of 114 Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

American National Bank & Trust bought a new position in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 114 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $44,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its position in Ulta Beauty by 48.1% during the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,364 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $668,000 after buying an additional 443 shares during the period. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC purchased a new position in Ulta Beauty during the 4th quarter valued at about $390,000. NEOS Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Ulta Beauty during the fourth quarter worth about $342,000. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 7,714 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $3,780,000 after purchasing an additional 533 shares during the period. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 5,397 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $2,644,000 after purchasing an additional 229 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

Shares of Ulta Beauty stock opened at $372.72 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.56 billion, a PE ratio of 14.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.31. Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a 1-year low of $318.17 and a 1-year high of $574.76. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $368.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $398.98.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 29th. The specialty retailer reported $5.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.47 by ($0.17). Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.68% and a return on equity of 54.02%. The company had revenue of $2.55 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.61 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $6.02 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ulta Beauty, Inc. will post 23.21 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ULTA. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price target on Ulta Beauty from $522.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on Ulta Beauty from $552.00 to $448.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Raymond James lowered Ulta Beauty from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $500.00 to $450.00 in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $328.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $500.00 to $430.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $425.08.

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.