Ulta Beauty Inc. $ULTA Shares Sold by Sierra Legacy Group

Sierra Legacy Group trimmed its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 7.7% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 2,619 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 220 shares during the quarter. Sierra Legacy Group’s holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $1,225,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Ulta Beauty by 128.2% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,225,023 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $449,021,000 after buying an additional 688,267 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 64.8% in the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 931,557 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $341,453,000 after acquiring an additional 366,147 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 81.7% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 913,600 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $334,871,000 after acquiring an additional 410,900 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 10.9% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 813,639 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $298,231,000 after purchasing an additional 79,666 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB increased its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 17.4% during the second quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 545,050 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $254,985,000 after purchasing an additional 80,734 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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 business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.43, for a total value of $264,215.00. Following the sale, the director owned 2,263 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,195,837.09. The trade was a 18.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.39% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ULTA has been the topic of a number of research reports. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $575.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $530.00 to $584.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $425.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ulta Beauty in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $640.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $550.38.

Ulta Beauty Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of ULTA opened at $507.37 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $530.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $495.44. 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 $22.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.05.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 28th. The specialty retailer reported $5.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.03 by $0.75. The company had revenue of $2.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.66 billion. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.31% and a return on equity of 48.78%. Ulta Beauty’s revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $5.30 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Ulta Beauty Inc. will post 23.96 earnings per share for the current year.

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.