Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC Acquires 160 Shares of Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 3.1% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,308 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 160 shares during the quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $1,946,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ULTA. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,199,935 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $520,587,000 after purchasing an additional 11,205 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors purchased a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter worth about $430,674,000. Deutsche Bank AG grew its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 655,561 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $285,123,000 after acquiring an additional 9,291 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 14.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 562,155 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $244,498,000 after acquiring an additional 72,004 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Ulta Beauty during the fourth quarter worth about $239,432,000. Institutional investors own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ULTA has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $465.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price objective (up previously from $450.00) on shares of Ulta Beauty in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $315.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $425.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Ulta Beauty from $475.00 to $400.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ulta Beauty currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $465.04.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ULTA opened at $475.57 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $442.52 and its two-hundred day moving average is $403.11. Ulta Beauty Inc. has a 1-year low of $309.01 and a 1-year high of $498.52. The company has a market cap of $21.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.08.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 49.73% and a net margin of 10.45%. The business had revenue of $2.85 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.79 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $6.47 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ulta Beauty Inc. will post 23.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.