Short Interest in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) Rises By 19.4%

Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,460,000 shares, an increase of 19.4% from the October 15th total of 2,060,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,300,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.9 days. Approximately 5.2% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Institutional Trading of Ulta Beauty

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Sage Capital Advisors llc grew its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 5.4% during the second quarter. Sage Capital Advisors llc now owns 525 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $203,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 627 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $244,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 83.3% during the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 66 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 5.0% in the second quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 695 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $268,000 after buying an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV boosted its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 1.0% during the second quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 3,495 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,349,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. 90.39% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ULTA has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $375.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 30th. BMO Capital Markets set a $385.00 price objective on Ulta Beauty in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their target price on Ulta Beauty from $522.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $356.00 to $357.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Loop Capital cut their price target on Ulta Beauty from $520.00 to $450.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $420.71.

Ulta Beauty Trading Down 4.6 %

Ulta Beauty stock opened at $365.17 on Friday. Ulta Beauty has a 12 month low of $318.17 and a 12 month high of $574.76. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $380.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $379.36. The firm has a market cap of $17.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.65, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.33.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 29th. The specialty retailer reported $5.30 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.47 by ($0.17). The company had revenue of $2.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.61 billion. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.68% and a return on equity of 54.02%. Ulta Beauty’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $6.02 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Ulta Beauty will post 23.07 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.