Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Downgraded by William Blair to “Market Perform”

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) was downgraded by analysts at William Blair from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note issued on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on ULTA. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $425.00 to $380.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 30th. StockNews.com upgraded Ulta Beauty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, September 28th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $328.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $325.00 to $300.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group cut their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $522.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $420.71.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ULTA opened at $343.26 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $16.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.33. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $378.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $378.08. Ulta Beauty has a one year low of $318.17 and a one year high of $574.76.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 29th. The specialty retailer reported $5.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.47 by ($0.17). The business had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.61 billion. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.68% and a return on equity of 54.02%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $6.02 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Ulta Beauty will post 23.07 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ulta Beauty

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 83.3% in the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 66 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty in the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Paladin Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Westside Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Ulta Beauty by 151.5% during the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 83 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.