JPMorgan Chase & Co. Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Stock

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) had its price target raised by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $472.00 to $480.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the specialty retailer’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on ULTA. Loop Capital decreased their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $520.00 to $450.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $550.00 to $505.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Barclays boosted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $328.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on Ulta Beauty from $426.00 to $424.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ulta Beauty has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $438.00.

Ulta Beauty Stock Performance

Shares of ULTA opened at $428.17 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $373.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $376.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.18 billion, a PE ratio of 17.13, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.32. Ulta Beauty has a 1 year low of $318.17 and a 1 year high of $574.76.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 5th. The specialty retailer reported $5.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.45 by $0.69. The business had revenue of $2.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. Ulta Beauty had a return on equity of 54.02% and a net margin of 10.68%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.07 EPS. Analysts predict that Ulta Beauty will post 23.07 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ulta Beauty

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of ULTA. CX Institutional grew its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 107.9% in the 2nd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 867 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $335,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the period. Optimum Investment Advisors grew its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 95.2% in the 2nd quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors now owns 205 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC grew its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 6,833 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $2,637,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the period. Czech National Bank grew its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 9,135 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $3,525,000 after purchasing an additional 591 shares during the period. Finally, RFG Advisory LLC grew its position in Ulta Beauty by 35.9% during the 2nd quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 537 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $207,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. 90.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.