Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Rating Lowered to Neutral at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler downgraded shares of Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) from an overweight rating to a neutral rating in a research note released on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has $404.00 target price on the specialty retailer’s stock, down from their prior target price of $494.00.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on ULTA. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty in a report on Friday, July 19th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $540.00 to $500.00 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $565.00 to $475.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 14th. Evercore ISI cut their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $630.00 to $500.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ulta Beauty from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ulta Beauty currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $497.61.

Ulta Beauty Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of Ulta Beauty stock opened at $369.46 on Wednesday. Ulta Beauty has a twelve month low of $362.49 and a twelve month high of $574.76. The stock has a market cap of $17.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $387.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $450.13.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 30th. The specialty retailer reported $6.47 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.19 by $0.28. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 11.13% and a return on equity of 58.06%. The firm had revenue of $2.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.72 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $6.88 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Ulta Beauty will post 25.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ulta Beauty news, insider Jodi J. Caro sold 650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $388.68, for a total value of $252,642.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 6,801 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,643,412.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Ulta Beauty news, insider Jodi J. Caro sold 650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $388.68, for a total value of $252,642.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 6,801 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,643,412.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Catherine Ann Halligan sold 100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $390.08, for a total transaction of $39,008.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 2,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $786,791.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.39% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Vima LLC bought a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Riverview Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty in the first quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Sound Income Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 490.0% in the first quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 59 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty in the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Institutional investors own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

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.