BMO Capital Markets Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Stock

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) had its price target boosted by stock analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $385.00 to $420.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “market perform” rating on the specialty retailer’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ price objective points to a potential downside of 1.91% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts have also commented on ULTA. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Ulta Beauty from $500.00 to $430.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 26th. William Blair cut shares of Ulta Beauty from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $357.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. TD Cowen reduced their price target on Ulta Beauty from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $475.00 to $412.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $438.00.

Ulta Beauty Trading Up 9.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ ULTA opened at $428.17 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $20.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.13, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.32. Ulta Beauty has a 12 month low of $318.17 and a 12 month high of $574.76. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $374.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $376.64.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The specialty retailer reported $5.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.45 by $0.69. The company had revenue of $2.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.68% and a return on equity of 54.02%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $5.07 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Ulta Beauty will post 23.07 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ulta Beauty

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ULTA. Choreo LLC boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 71.7% in the 2nd quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 2,868 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $1,103,000 after purchasing an additional 1,198 shares during the last quarter. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new position in Ulta Beauty in the second quarter valued at approximately $19,136,000. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. grew its position in Ulta Beauty by 5.3% in the second quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 2,778 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,072,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the period. Jensen Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Ulta Beauty by 17.9% in the third quarter. Jensen Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,330 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $4,409,000 after acquiring an additional 1,720 shares during the period. Finally, Distillate Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Ulta Beauty during the second quarter worth $14,665,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.39% 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.