Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Upgraded to “Buy” at The Goldman Sachs Group

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) was upgraded by stock analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $423.00 target price on the specialty retailer’s stock, up from their previous target price of $384.00. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 15.40% from the company’s current price.

ULTA has been the topic of a number of other research reports. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $467.00 to $404.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $480.00 to $475.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 14th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $500.00 to $460.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $405.00 to $365.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $427.61.

Ulta Beauty Stock Performance

Shares of ULTA opened at $366.54 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.34. Ulta Beauty has a 52-week low of $309.01 and a 52-week high of $529.67. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $372.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $386.36.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 13th. The specialty retailer reported $8.46 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.13 by $1.33. The company had revenue of $3.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.47 billion. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.58% and a return on equity of 51.95%. Ulta Beauty’s revenue was down 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $8.08 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Ulta Beauty will post 23.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ulta Beauty

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ULTA. Fairtree Asset Management Pty Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter valued at about $668,000. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ bought a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter worth about $6,565,000. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH increased its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 1,015.9% during the 4th quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH now owns 11,851 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $5,154,000 after purchasing an additional 10,789 shares during the period. GHE LLC lifted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 17.9% in the 4th quarter. GHE LLC now owns 4,076 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,773,000 after buying an additional 620 shares during the period. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Ulta Beauty in the 4th quarter worth approximately $123,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

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.