Amalgamated Bank Lowers Stock Position in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

Amalgamated Bank trimmed its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 9.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,123 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 1,367 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank’s holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $6,430,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P grew its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 364.3% during the 3rd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 65 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the period. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 7,300.0% in the third quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 74 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. Finally, Webster Bank N. A. acquired a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty in the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. 90.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Catherine Ann Halligan sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.26, for a total transaction of $263,130.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,665 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $876,222.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Ulta Beauty news, Director Catherine Ann Halligan sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.26, for a total transaction of $263,130.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,665 shares in the company, valued at approximately $876,222.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Anita Jane Ryan sold 3,102 shares of Ulta Beauty stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $525.25, for a total transaction of $1,629,325.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 2,705 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,420,801.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 24,552 shares of company stock worth $12,920,326 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.39% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ULTA. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $574.00 to $627.00 in a report on Friday, March 15th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $575.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $535.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $480.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Barclays cut shares of Ulta Beauty from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $612.00 to $434.00 in a report on Monday, April 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $548.05.

Ulta Beauty Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of Ulta Beauty stock opened at $397.39 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.36. Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a twelve month low of $368.02 and a twelve month high of $574.76. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $486.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $470.17.

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

Ulta Beauty declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, March 14th that allows the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the specialty retailer to buy up to 7.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Ulta Beauty 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.