Beech Hill Advisors Inc. Invests $3.04 Million in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

Beech Hill Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 6,988 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $3,039,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Paladin Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Ulta Beauty during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. raised its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 118.4% during the 3rd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 83 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Westside Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 151.5% during the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 83 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty during the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. Finally, Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd bought a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty in the third quarter worth about $41,000. 90.39% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ULTA shares. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $457.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $426.00 to $424.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. B. Riley upgraded shares of Ulta Beauty from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $330.00 to $430.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Ulta Beauty from $505.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $472.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $460.30.

Ulta Beauty Stock Performance

ULTA stock traded up $0.09 during trading on Thursday, reaching $407.47. 21,811 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 755,277. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $402.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $384.25. Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a 12 month low of $318.17 and a 12 month high of $574.76. The company has a market capitalization of $18.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.28.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The specialty retailer reported $5.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.45 by $0.69. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.58% and a return on equity of 51.95%. The business had revenue of $2.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $5.07 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ulta Beauty, Inc. will post 23.93 EPS for the current year.

Ulta Beauty Company 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.