Evercore ISI Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Stock

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) had its price target lifted by research analysts at Evercore ISI from $595.00 to $640.00 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the specialty retailer’s stock. Evercore ISI’s target price indicates a potential upside of 29.89% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on ULTA. Barclays upgraded Ulta Beauty from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $518.00 to $589.00 in a research note on Friday, August 22nd. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Ulta Beauty in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Wall Street Zen raised Ulta Beauty from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $600.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $500.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $534.75.

Ulta Beauty Stock Down 7.1%

NASDAQ:ULTA opened at $492.73 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $498.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $427.13. The company has a market capitalization of $22.15 billion, a PE ratio of 18.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.12. Ulta Beauty has a 52-week low of $309.01 and a 52-week high of $538.59.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 28th. The specialty retailer reported $5.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.03 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $2.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.66 billion. Ulta Beauty had a return on equity of 49.73% and a net margin of 10.31%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.30 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ulta Beauty will post 23.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Ulta Beauty

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Ulta Beauty by 128.2% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,225,023 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $449,021,000 after purchasing an additional 688,267 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Ulta Beauty by 64.8% in the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 931,557 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $341,453,000 after purchasing an additional 366,147 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Ulta Beauty by 81.7% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 913,600 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $334,871,000 after purchasing an additional 410,900 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Ulta Beauty by 10.9% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 813,639 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $298,231,000 after purchasing an additional 79,666 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG increased its stake in Ulta Beauty by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 655,561 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $285,123,000 after purchasing an additional 9,291 shares in the last quarter. 90.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.