Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) Position Lifted by Anchor Capital Advisors LLC

Anchor Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 21.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 151,162 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after buying an additional 27,139 shares during the period. Ulta Beauty accounts for approximately 2.0% of Anchor Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Anchor Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $74,068,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ULTA. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P increased its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 364.3% in the third quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 65 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 7,300.0% in the third quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 74 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. Finally, Webster Bank N. A. acquired a new position in Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ULTA has been the subject of several analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $575.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $505.00 to $565.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 15th. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and set a $595.00 price target on shares of Ulta Beauty in a report on Friday, March 15th. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $656.00 to $635.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $665.00 to $595.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $548.05.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ulta Beauty

In other Ulta Beauty news, COO Kecia Steelman sold 20,950 shares of Ulta Beauty stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.39, for a total transaction of $11,027,870.50. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 10,494 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,523,936.66. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, COO Kecia Steelman sold 20,950 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.39, for a total value of $11,027,870.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 10,494 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,523,936.66. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Catherine Ann Halligan sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.26, for a total value of $263,130.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 1,665 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $876,222.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 24,552 shares of company stock valued at $12,920,326 in the last 90 days. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

NASDAQ ULTA traded up $3.65 on Monday, hitting $410.04. 670,337 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 767,777. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $500.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $469.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.30. Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a twelve month low of $368.02 and a twelve month high of $574.76.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 14th. The specialty retailer reported $8.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $7.49 by $0.59. Ulta Beauty had a return on equity of 61.64% and a net margin of 11.52%. The firm had revenue of $3.55 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.53 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $6.68 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ulta Beauty, Inc. will post 26.55 EPS for the current year.

Ulta Beauty announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, March 14th that permits the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the specialty retailer to buy up to 7.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is 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.