Ulta Beauty Inc. $ULTA Stake Reduced by New York State Common Retirement Fund

New York State Common Retirement Fund cut its stake in Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 29,498 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 1,388 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $16,128,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 9.4% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 654,598 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $306,234,000 after acquiring an additional 56,063 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 5.4% in the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 582,635 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $272,568,000 after purchasing an additional 30,100 shares during the period. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 6.7% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 581,506 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $317,938,000 after buying an additional 36,456 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty during the second quarter worth approximately $258,791,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 76.6% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 477,504 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $222,794,000 after buying an additional 207,084 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

Ulta Beauty Stock Up 2.6%

Shares of Ulta Beauty stock opened at $647.36 on Monday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $612.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $554.81. The firm has a market cap of $28.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 0.85. Ulta Beauty Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $309.01 and a fifty-two week high of $695.34.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ULTA has been the topic of several analyst reports. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Ulta Beauty from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ulta Beauty in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $625.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 5th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $640.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $732.00 target price on shares of Ulta Beauty in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ulta Beauty presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $626.44.

Ulta Beauty Company Profile

Ulta Beauty, Inc (NASDAQ: ULTA) is a U.S.-based specialty retailer and beauty services provider focused on cosmetics, fragrance, skin care, hair care, bath and body, and beauty tools. The company operates a dual-format business that combines brick-and-mortar retail stores with an e-commerce platform, offering a broad assortment of national, prestige and mass-market brands alongside its own private-label products. In many locations Ulta also provides full-service salon treatments, positioning the company as a one-stop destination for product discovery and in-store services.

The retailer’s product mix spans color cosmetics, haircare and styling products, skin and body care, fragrance, and accessories, catering to a wide range of consumer preferences and price points.