Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Stock Rating Upgraded by Morgan Stanley

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) was upgraded by analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has a $500.00 target price on the specialty retailer’s stock, up from their previous target price of $430.00. Morgan Stanley’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 19.49% from the company’s current price.

ULTA has been the topic of several other research reports. B. Riley raised shares of Ulta Beauty from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $330.00 to $430.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $472.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Loop Capital boosted their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Barclays raised their price target on Ulta Beauty from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Raymond James decreased their price target on Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $440.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ulta Beauty presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $459.22.

Ulta Beauty Stock Down 0.9 %

NASDAQ:ULTA opened at $418.44 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $405.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $385.00. The company has a market cap of $19.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.28. Ulta Beauty has a 52 week low of $318.17 and a 52 week high of $574.76.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The specialty retailer reported $5.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.45 by $0.69. The firm had revenue of $2.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. Ulta Beauty had a return on equity of 51.95% and a net margin of 10.58%. Ulta Beauty’s revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $5.07 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Ulta Beauty will post 23.93 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ulta Beauty

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in Ulta Beauty by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 627 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $244,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Stonegate Investment Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC now owns 6,623 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $2,881,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 3.0% in the second quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,221 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $471,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares during the period. Global Trust Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 39.6% during the third quarter. Global Trust Asset Management LLC now owns 141 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Finance LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 1.3% during the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 3,231 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,257,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.