Highland Capital Management LLC Increases Stake in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

Highland Capital Management LLC grew its position in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 2.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,061 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the quarter. Highland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $7,855,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ULTA. Jensen Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 17.9% in the 3rd quarter. Jensen Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,330 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $4,409,000 after buying an additional 1,720 shares in the last quarter. Versor Investments LP acquired a new stake in Ulta Beauty in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $793,000. Stephens Inc. AR raised its position in Ulta Beauty by 31.0% during the 3rd quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 16,014 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $6,231,000 after buying an additional 3,791 shares during the last quarter. Chase Investment Counsel Corp raised its position in Ulta Beauty by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. Chase Investment Counsel Corp now owns 4,000 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,556,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Integrated Investment Consultants LLC purchased a new position in Ulta Beauty during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $4,480,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on ULTA shares. William Blair lowered shares of Ulta Beauty from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $457.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. DA Davidson lifted their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $435.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $505.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, B. Riley raised shares of Ulta Beauty from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $330.00 to $430.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $459.22.

Ulta Beauty Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of ULTA opened at $410.66 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $19.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.28. Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a 52-week low of $318.17 and a 52-week high of $574.76. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $410.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $385.57.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The specialty retailer reported $5.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.45 by $0.69. Ulta Beauty had a return on equity of 51.95% and a net margin of 10.58%. The firm had revenue of $2.53 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $5.07 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Ulta Beauty, Inc. will post 23.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.