GAMMA Investing LLC Acquires New Holdings in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 186 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $93,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ULTA. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 364.3% in the third quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 65 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 7,300.0% in the third quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 74 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Webster Bank N. A. acquired a new stake in Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Institutional investors own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ULTA. Barclays cut Ulta Beauty from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $612.00 to $434.00 in a research note on Monday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $574.00 to $627.00 in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $505.00 to $565.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Loop Capital upgraded Ulta Beauty from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $540.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $665.00 to $595.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ulta Beauty currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $548.05.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

Ulta Beauty stock opened at $410.04 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.66 billion, a PE ratio of 15.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.30. Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a 12 month low of $368.02 and a 12 month high of $574.76. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $497.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $469.61.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 14th. The specialty retailer reported $8.08 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.49 by $0.59. The business had revenue of $3.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.53 billion. Ulta Beauty had a return on equity of 61.64% and a net margin of 11.52%. The business’s revenue was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $6.68 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Ulta Beauty, Inc. will post 26.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ulta Beauty declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, March 14th that authorizes the company to buyback $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the specialty retailer to reacquire up to 7.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Kecia Steelman sold 20,950 shares of Ulta Beauty stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.39, for a total value of $11,027,870.50. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 10,494 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,523,936.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Catherine Ann Halligan sold 500 shares of Ulta Beauty stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.26, for a total value of $263,130.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,665 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $876,222.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Kecia Steelman sold 20,950 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.39, for a total value of $11,027,870.50. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 10,494 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,523,936.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 24,552 shares of company stock worth $12,920,326 over the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.