BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. Increases Stock Position in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 0.2% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 46,726 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after buying an additional 84 shares during the period. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A.’s holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $18,182,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 5.2% during the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 3,205 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $1,676,000 after purchasing an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty in the first quarter worth $281,000. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Ulta Beauty during the first quarter valued at $34,000. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 31.0% in the first quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 118,777 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $62,106,000 after acquiring an additional 28,130 shares during the period. Finally, Paloma Partners Management Co purchased a new position in Ulta Beauty in the first quarter worth about $866,000. 90.39% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets set a $385.00 price target on shares of Ulta Beauty in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $325.00 to $300.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $385.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays raised their target price on Ulta Beauty from $328.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Ulta Beauty from $525.00 to $485.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ulta Beauty presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $420.71.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ULTA opened at $338.38 on Friday. Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a 12 month low of $318.17 and a 12 month high of $574.76. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $376.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $377.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.58, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.33.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 29th. The specialty retailer reported $5.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.47 by ($0.17). Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.68% and a return on equity of 54.02%. The company had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.61 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $6.02 EPS. Ulta Beauty’s revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Ulta Beauty, Inc. will post 23.07 earnings per share 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.