Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Upgraded at B. Riley

B. Riley upgraded shares of Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) from a sell rating to a neutral rating in a report published on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $430.00 price objective on the specialty retailer’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $330.00.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on Ulta Beauty from $442.00 to $476.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Loop Capital upped their target price on Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Barclays upped their target price on Ulta Beauty from $335.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Ulta Beauty in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, StockNews.com cut Ulta Beauty from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $460.30.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ULTA opened at $415.14 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $19.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.28. Ulta Beauty has a 1 year low of $318.17 and a 1 year high of $574.76. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $401.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is $383.86.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The specialty retailer reported $5.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.45 by $0.69. Ulta Beauty had a return on equity of 51.95% and a net margin of 10.58%. The firm had revenue of $2.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $5.07 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ulta Beauty will post 23.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Ulta Beauty

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 180,713.0% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,238,569 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $481,952,000 after acquiring an additional 1,237,884 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,188,730 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $461,059,000 after acquiring an additional 10,153 shares during the period. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board acquired a new stake in Ulta Beauty during the 3rd quarter worth about $359,480,000. Champlain Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 610,400 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $237,519,000 after acquiring an additional 31,540 shares during the period. Finally, Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt grew its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 14.4% in the 3rd quarter. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt now owns 516,405 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $200,944,000 after buying an additional 65,000 shares during the period. 90.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.