Ulta Beauty Inc. $ULTA Shares Bought by Silvant Capital Management LLC

Silvant Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 60.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,187 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after buying an additional 3,475 shares during the quarter. Silvant Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $4,298,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 128.2% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,225,023 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $449,021,000 after purchasing an additional 688,267 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Ulta Beauty in the 2nd quarter valued at about $258,791,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 81.7% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 913,600 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $334,871,000 after buying an additional 410,900 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 64.8% during the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 931,557 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $341,453,000 after buying an additional 366,147 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 237.7% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 270,420 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $96,674,000 after buying an additional 190,353 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ulta Beauty news, Director Mike C. Smith sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.43, for a total transaction of $264,215.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,263 shares in the company, valued at $1,195,837.09. This represents a 18.10% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ulta Beauty Trading Up 2.7%

ULTA opened at $535.16 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $529.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $500.09. Ulta Beauty Inc. has a 12-month low of $309.01 and a 12-month high of $572.23. The firm has a market cap of $24.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.52, a PEG ratio of 3.54 and a beta of 1.05.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 28th. The specialty retailer reported $5.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.03 by $0.75. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.31% and a return on equity of 48.78%. The business had revenue of $2.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.66 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $5.30 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Ulta Beauty Inc. will post 23.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on ULTA shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ulta Beauty in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $610.00 price target on shares of Ulta Beauty in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Ulta Beauty from $510.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $425.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $425.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ulta Beauty has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $550.38.

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.