Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Cut to Market Perform at William Blair

William Blair lowered shares of Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research note released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America cut their target price on Ulta Beauty from $425.00 to $380.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 30th. B. Riley assumed coverage on Ulta Beauty in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. They set a “sell” rating and a $300.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays raised their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $328.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Loop Capital dropped their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $520.00 to $450.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $426.00 to $424.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $420.71.

Ulta Beauty Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of ULTA opened at $338.38 on Thursday. Ulta Beauty has a 12-month low of $318.17 and a 12-month high of $574.76. The business’s fifty day moving average is $376.80 and its 200 day moving average is $377.30. The stock has a market cap of $15.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.33.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 29th. The specialty retailer reported $5.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.47 by ($0.17). Ulta Beauty had a return on equity of 54.02% and a net margin of 10.68%. The firm had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.61 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $6.02 earnings per share. Ulta Beauty’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Ulta Beauty will post 23.07 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Ulta Beauty

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in Ulta Beauty in the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in Ulta Beauty by 83.3% in the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 66 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new stake in Ulta Beauty in the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Paladin Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Ulta Beauty in the third quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Westside Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Ulta Beauty by 151.5% in the third quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 83 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.