Ulta Beauty Inc. $ULTA Stake Lowered by Griffin Asset Management Inc.

Griffin Asset Management Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 27.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,089 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 3,116 shares during the period. Griffin Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $3,784,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 128.2% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,225,023 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $449,021,000 after purchasing an additional 688,267 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 64.8% in the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 931,557 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $341,453,000 after purchasing an additional 366,147 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 81.7% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 913,600 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $334,871,000 after purchasing an additional 410,900 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 10.9% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 813,639 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $298,231,000 after purchasing an additional 79,666 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 17.4% in the second quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 545,050 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $254,985,000 after purchasing an additional 80,734 shares in the last quarter. 90.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

Ulta Beauty stock opened at $549.28 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $24.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.06, a P/E/G ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.08. Ulta Beauty Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $309.01 and a fifty-two week high of $572.23. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $528.22 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $465.22.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 28th. The specialty retailer reported $5.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.03 by $0.75. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.31% and a return on equity of 48.78%. The firm had revenue of $2.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.66 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.30 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ulta Beauty Inc. will post 23.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ulta Beauty

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 value of $264,215.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 2,263 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,195,837.09. This trade represents a 18.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.39% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ULTA has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $500.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 29th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $400.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $530.00 to $584.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ulta Beauty presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $549.33.

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.