Raymond James Financial Inc. Buys New Holdings in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 64,713 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $28,146,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned 0.14% of Ulta Beauty at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ULTA. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board bought a new stake in Ulta Beauty during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $359,480,000. Holocene Advisors LP raised its stake in Ulta Beauty by 3,246.2% during the 3rd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 346,262 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $134,737,000 after purchasing an additional 335,914 shares during the period. Atreides Management LP bought a new stake in Ulta Beauty during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $73,069,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Ulta Beauty during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $58,074,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Ulta Beauty by 364.6% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 159,053 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $69,177,000 after purchasing an additional 124,822 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on ULTA. William Blair downgraded Ulta Beauty from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $360.00 to $310.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $538.00 to $526.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $470.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, DA Davidson reduced their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $510.00 to $415.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ulta Beauty presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $431.13.

Ulta Beauty Trading Up 13.7 %

Shares of ULTA stock opened at $357.48 on Friday. Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a twelve month low of $309.01 and a twelve month high of $546.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.30, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.34. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $385.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $386.69.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The specialty retailer reported $8.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $7.13 by $1.33. Ulta Beauty had a return on equity of 51.95% and a net margin of 10.58%. The business had revenue of $3.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.47 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $8.08 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Ulta Beauty, Inc. will post 23.96 EPS for the current fiscal 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.