Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Price Target Raised to $330.00

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) had its target price hoisted by equities researchers at B. Riley from $300.00 to $330.00 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “sell” rating on the specialty retailer’s stock. B. Riley’s price objective indicates a potential downside of 23.44% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $435.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $500.00 to $430.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Ulta Beauty from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday. DA Davidson reduced their target price on Ulta Beauty from $507.00 to $435.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Ulta Beauty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ulta Beauty currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $434.33.

Ulta Beauty Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ULTA traded up $38.18 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $431.05. 2,287,198 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 978,076. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $373.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $376.39. The company has a market cap of $20.31 billion, a PE ratio of 17.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.32. Ulta Beauty has a 1 year low of $318.17 and a 1 year high of $574.76.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ulta Beauty

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ULTA. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted 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 buying an additional 1,237,884 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Ulta Beauty by 0.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,188,730 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $461,059,000 after purchasing an additional 10,153 shares during the last quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board acquired a new position in Ulta Beauty in the third quarter worth $359,480,000. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 14.1% in the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 620,793 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $239,545,000 after purchasing an additional 76,721 shares during the period. Finally, Champlain Investment Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 5.4% during the third quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 610,400 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $237,519,000 after purchasing an additional 31,540 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.