Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) Short Interest Down 13.6% in March

Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,040,000 shares, a decrease of 13.6% from the February 28th total of 2,360,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 998,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.0 days. Approximately 4.4% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ulta Beauty

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ULTA. Capital World Investors acquired a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty in the 4th quarter valued at $430,674,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter valued at about $239,432,000. Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 10,336.7% in the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 459,110 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $199,681,000 after purchasing an additional 454,711 shares during the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter valued at about $73,780,000. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty during the 4th quarter worth about $58,074,000. 90.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on ULTA. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $500.00 to $460.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Ulta Beauty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $384.00 to $423.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Ulta Beauty from $475.00 to $400.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $470.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $505.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $427.61.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

Shares of ULTA stock traded up $7.95 on Wednesday, reaching $381.86. 311,162 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,059,940. Ulta Beauty has a one year low of $309.01 and a one year high of $528.80. The stock has a market cap of $17.71 billion, a PE ratio of 15.26, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.34. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $371.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $386.33.

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