Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) Shares Sold by Essex Investment Management Co. LLC

Essex Investment Management Co. LLC cut its position in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 8.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 879 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 80 shares during the period. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC’s holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $382,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ULTA. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board purchased a new position in Ulta Beauty in the third quarter valued at $359,480,000. Holocene Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 3,246.2% in the 3rd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 346,262 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $134,737,000 after acquiring an additional 335,914 shares during the last quarter. Atreides Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty in the 3rd quarter valued at about $73,069,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty during the 4th quarter worth about $58,074,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Ulta Beauty by 364.6% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 159,053 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $69,177,000 after purchasing an additional 124,822 shares during the last quarter. 90.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ULTA has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $455.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. William Blair cut shares of Ulta Beauty from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. DA Davidson raised their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $435.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $459.22.

Ulta Beauty Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of ULTA opened at $355.43 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $394.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $388.12. Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a twelve month low of $318.17 and a twelve month high of $574.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.48 billion, a PE ratio of 14.22, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.34.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The specialty retailer reported $5.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.45 by $0.69. The firm had revenue of $2.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. Ulta Beauty had a return on equity of 51.95% and a net margin of 10.58%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $5.07 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Ulta Beauty, Inc. will post 23.96 EPS for the current year.

Ulta Beauty 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.