Wells Fargo & Company Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Stock Price

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) had its target price dropped by investment analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $360.00 to $310.00 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “underweight” rating on the specialty retailer’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price objective points to a potential downside of 13.28% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Ulta Beauty from $500.00 to $460.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com upgraded Ulta Beauty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays lifted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $475.00 to $380.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, DA Davidson lifted their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $435.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $431.13.

Ulta Beauty Stock Performance

Shares of Ulta Beauty stock opened at $357.48 on Friday. Ulta Beauty has a one year low of $309.01 and a one year high of $544.36. The company has a market cap of $16.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.30, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.34. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $385.01 and its 200 day moving average price is $386.80.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 11,205 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors purchased a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty in the 4th quarter valued at about $430,674,000. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board purchased a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty in the 3rd quarter valued at about $359,480,000. Deutsche Bank AG increased its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 655,561 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $285,123,000 after acquiring an additional 9,291 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Champlain Investment Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 610,400 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $237,519,000 after acquiring an additional 31,540 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

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.