Cetera Investment Advisers Raises Stock Holdings in Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 3.0% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 11,772 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after buying an additional 338 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $4,315,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 166.2% in the 4th quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 2,947 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,282,000 after buying an additional 1,840 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 26.4% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 73,137 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $31,809,000 after buying an additional 15,258 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in Ulta Beauty by 14.0% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 40,242 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $17,502,000 after acquiring an additional 4,952 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors raised its position in Ulta Beauty by 329.7% in the fourth quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 2,342 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,019,000 after acquiring an additional 1,797 shares during the period. Finally, Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter valued at about $6,494,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ULTA has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Loop Capital restated a “hold” rating and set a $510.00 price target on shares of Ulta Beauty in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $315.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $477.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 30th. DA Davidson upped their price target on Ulta Beauty from $550.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Ulta Beauty from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $469.09.

Ulta Beauty Trading Down 1.4%

Ulta Beauty stock opened at $507.73 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $475.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $411.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.82 billion, a PE ratio of 19.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 1.12. Ulta Beauty Inc. has a 1-year low of $309.01 and a 1-year high of $523.68.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The specialty retailer reported $6.70 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.73 by $0.97. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.45% and a return on equity of 49.73%. The firm had revenue of $2.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.79 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $6.47 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Ulta Beauty Inc. will post 23.96 earnings per share for the current 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.