Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) Short Interest Update

Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) saw a large decrease in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 2,360,000 shares, a decrease of 13.6% from the February 13th total of 2,730,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 949,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.5 days. Currently, 5.1% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ULTA. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $480.00 to $475.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $500.00 to $460.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $475.00 to $400.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped 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, March 14th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $405.00 to $365.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $427.13.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ulta Beauty

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ bought a new stake in Ulta Beauty during the 4th quarter valued at $6,565,000. Berkeley Inc lifted its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 75.8% in the fourth quarter. Berkeley Inc now owns 10,440 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $4,541,000 after buying an additional 4,501 shares in the last quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH grew its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 1,015.9% during the fourth quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH now owns 11,851 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $5,154,000 after buying an additional 10,789 shares during the last quarter. GHE LLC increased its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 17.9% during the fourth quarter. GHE LLC now owns 4,076 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,773,000 after acquiring an additional 620 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Ulta Beauty in the 4th quarter valued at about $123,000. 90.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ulta Beauty Trading Down 3.7 %

Ulta Beauty stock opened at $343.83 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.94 billion, a PE ratio of 13.76, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.34. Ulta Beauty has a 12 month low of $309.01 and a 12 month high of $535.08. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $381.84 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $386.80.

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

Ulta Beauty Company 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.