Ulta Beauty Inc. $ULTA Shares Purchased by Advisors Capital Management LLC

Advisors Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 1.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 41,892 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after buying an additional 708 shares during the quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC owned about 0.09% of Ulta Beauty worth $19,598,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 128.2% during the first 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 buying an additional 688,267 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 366,147 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 81.7% in the first 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 during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Ulta Beauty by 10.9% in the first 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB grew its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 17.4% in the 2nd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 545,050 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $254,985,000 after buying an additional 80,734 shares during the period. 90.39% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ulta Beauty

In other news, Director Mike C. Smith sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.43, for a total value of $264,215.00. Following the sale, the director owned 2,263 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,195,837.09. This represents a 18.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on ULTA shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 22nd. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and set a $605.00 price target (up from $580.00) on shares of Ulta Beauty in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $650.00 to $653.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 10th. Loop Capital reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $510.00 target price on shares of Ulta Beauty in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $595.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $550.38.

Ulta Beauty Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ULTA opened at $533.87 on Friday. Ulta Beauty Inc. has a 1 year low of $309.01 and a 1 year high of $572.23. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $531.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $491.44. The firm has a market cap of $23.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.47, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.05.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last issued 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. Ulta Beauty had a return on equity of 48.78% and a net margin of 10.31%.The firm had revenue of $2.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.66 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $5.30 EPS. Ulta Beauty’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Ulta Beauty Inc. will post 23.96 EPS 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.