TD Cowen Upgrades Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) to Buy

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) was upgraded by investment analysts at TD Cowen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a $725.00 price objective on the specialty retailer’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $600.00. TD Cowen’s target price points to a potential upside of 20.24% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Piper Sandler set a $615.00 price target on shares of Ulta Beauty in a report on Friday. Bank of America raised 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. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ulta Beauty in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Ulta Beauty from $425.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $640.00 price objective (up previously from $610.00) on shares of Ulta Beauty in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Sixteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $572.75.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

Ulta Beauty stock opened at $602.97 on Monday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $534.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $509.96. The company has a market capitalization of $26.75 billion, a PE ratio of 23.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.87. Ulta Beauty has a one year low of $309.01 and a one year high of $611.90.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 4th. The specialty retailer reported $5.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.61 by $0.53. The firm had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. Ulta Beauty had a return on equity of 46.33% and a net margin of 9.93%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $5.14 earnings per share. Ulta Beauty has set its FY 2025 guidance at 25.200-25.500 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Ulta Beauty will post 23.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ulta Beauty

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Allworth Financial LP boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 27.8% in the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 534 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd lifted its position in Ulta Beauty by 48.5% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 23,591 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $12,898,000 after purchasing an additional 7,702 shares during the period. Groupama Asset Managment bought a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty in the 3rd quarter valued at about $506,000. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty in the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,390,000. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 14.0% during the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,455 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $796,000 after buying an additional 179 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

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.