Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Price Target Raised to $550.00

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) had its price objective raised by Morgan Stanley from $460.00 to $550.00 in a research report report published on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the specialty retailer’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on ULTA. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $465.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Telsey Advisory Group increased their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $460.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $465.00 price objective (up from $435.00) on shares of Ulta Beauty in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $467.00 to $404.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Finally, B. Riley dropped their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $430.00 to $330.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ulta Beauty has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $454.04.

Ulta Beauty Trading Up 11.4%

Shares of ULTA stock opened at $469.71 on Friday. Ulta Beauty has a 12 month low of $309.01 and a 12 month high of $491.98. The stock has a market cap of $21.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.80, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $384.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $388.06.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The specialty retailer reported $6.70 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.73 by $0.97. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.58% and a return on equity of 51.95%. The business had revenue of $2.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.79 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $6.47 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ulta Beauty will post 23.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Jodi J. Caro sold 902 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.16, for a total value of $332,982.32. Following the sale, the insider now owns 7,632 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,817,429.12. This represents a 10.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ulta Beauty

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ULTA. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Ulta Beauty by 128.2% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,225,023 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $449,021,000 after buying an additional 688,267 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Ulta Beauty by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,199,935 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $520,587,000 after buying an additional 11,205 shares during the period. Capital World Investors purchased a new position in Ulta Beauty in the 4th quarter worth about $430,674,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Ulta Beauty by 64.8% in the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 931,557 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $341,453,000 after buying an additional 366,147 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Ulta Beauty by 81.7% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 913,600 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $334,871,000 after buying an additional 410,900 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

Ulta Beauty Company Profile

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.