Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Rating Increased to Overweight at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research note released on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $500.00 target price on the specialty retailer’s stock, up from their previous target price of $430.00.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $385.00 to $420.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $500.00 to $538.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $390.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $455.00 to $475.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $470.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. One 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, Ulta Beauty currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $459.22.

Ulta Beauty Trading Up 4.2 %

Shares of ULTA stock opened at $422.16 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $404.52 and its 200-day moving average price is $384.77. The stock has a market cap of $19.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.89, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.28. Ulta Beauty has a twelve month low of $318.17 and a twelve month high of $574.76.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The specialty retailer reported $5.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.45 by $0.69. The firm had revenue of $2.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.58% and a return on equity of 51.95%. The company’s revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.07 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ulta Beauty will post 23.93 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ulta Beauty

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC purchased a new position in Ulta Beauty in the second quarter valued at approximately $19,136,000. Jensen Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Ulta Beauty by 17.9% in the third quarter. Jensen Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,330 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $4,409,000 after purchasing an additional 1,720 shares during the last quarter. Distillate Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Ulta Beauty in the second quarter valued at approximately $14,665,000. Versor Investments LP purchased a new position in Ulta Beauty in the third quarter valued at approximately $793,000. Finally, Stephens Inc. AR increased its stake in Ulta Beauty by 31.0% in the third quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 16,014 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $6,231,000 after purchasing an additional 3,791 shares during the last quarter. 90.39% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.