River Road Asset Management LLC Has $7.50 Million Stock Holdings in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

River Road Asset Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 7.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,300 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 1,187 shares during the quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $7,497,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Ulta Beauty during the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. Ancora Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Ulta Beauty in the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Fortis Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty in the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, BKM Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Institutional investors own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Ulta Beauty

In other Ulta Beauty news, COO Kecia Steelman sold 20,950 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.39, for a total value of $11,027,870.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 10,494 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,523,936.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director Catherine Ann Halligan sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.26, for a total transaction of $263,130.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,665 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $876,222.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Kecia Steelman sold 20,950 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.39, for a total transaction of $11,027,870.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 10,494 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,523,936.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 24,552 shares of company stock valued at $12,920,326 in the last 90 days. 0.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ULTA. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 15th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $575.00 to $625.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $480.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $665.00 to $595.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $505.00 to $565.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $568.29.

Ulta Beauty Trading Up 0.1 %

ULTA opened at $424.55 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $20.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.30, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.30. The company’s 50 day moving average is $515.89 and its 200-day moving average is $467.84. Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a 1-year low of $368.02 and a 1-year high of $574.76.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 14th. The specialty retailer reported $8.08 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $7.49 by $0.59. The business had revenue of $3.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.53 billion. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 11.52% and a return on equity of 61.64%. The firm’s revenue was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $6.68 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ulta Beauty, Inc. will post 26.74 EPS for the current year.

Ulta Beauty declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, March 14th that authorizes the company to buyback $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the specialty retailer to repurchase up to 7.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.