Ulta Beauty’s (ULTA) Neutral Rating Reiterated at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler reaffirmed their neutral rating on shares of Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) in a report issued on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $437.00 price target on the specialty retailer’s stock, up from their prior price target of $386.00.

ULTA has been the topic of several other research reports. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $467.00 to $404.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $477.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $415.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $475.00 to $400.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $500.00 to $460.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ulta Beauty presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $454.04.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

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 firm has a market cap of $21.21 billion, a PE ratio of 18.80, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $384.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $388.06.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The specialty retailer reported $6.70 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $2.79 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $6.47 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ulta Beauty will post 23.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ulta Beauty

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Ulta Beauty by 128.2% during the first 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings 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 valued at $520,587,000 after buying an additional 11,205 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors bought a new position in Ulta Beauty during the 4th quarter worth approximately $430,674,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 64.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 366,147 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 81.7% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 913,600 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $334,871,000 after purchasing an additional 410,900 shares during the last quarter. 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.