Farther Finance Advisors LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Ulta Beauty Inc. $ULTA

Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 16.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 860 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after purchasing an additional 123 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $402,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ULTA. American National Bank & Trust purchased a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty in the 1st quarter valued at about $29,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty during the 1st quarter worth approximately $31,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 218.5% in the 1st quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 86 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. North Star Investment Management Corp. boosted its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 71.4% in the 1st quarter. North Star Investment Management Corp. now owns 96 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ransom Advisory Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty in the 1st quarter valued at $36,000. 90.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Mike C. Smith sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.43, for a total transaction of $264,215.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,263 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,195,837.09. This represents a 18.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.39% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Argus raised shares of Ulta Beauty from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $570.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $400.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 29th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Ulta Beauty from $425.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 26th. Wall Street Zen lowered Ulta Beauty from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ulta Beauty currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $544.20.

Ulta Beauty Trading Up 2.3%

NASDAQ:ULTA opened at $552.00 on Monday. Ulta Beauty Inc. has a 12-month low of $309.01 and a 12-month high of $552.45. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $519.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $451.25. The firm has a market cap of $24.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.17, a PEG ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.06.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 28th. The specialty retailer reported $5.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.03 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $2.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.66 billion. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.31% and a return on equity of 48.78%. Ulta Beauty’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $5.30 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Ulta Beauty Inc. will post 23.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.