Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Upgraded at Morgan Stanley

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a $500.00 target price on the specialty retailer’s stock, up from their prior target price of $430.00. Morgan Stanley’s price target points to a potential upside of 23.45% from the company’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $385.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $460.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Raymond James cut their target price on Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $440.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on Ulta Beauty from $426.00 to $424.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Loop Capital increased their price target on Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ulta Beauty presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $459.22.

Ulta Beauty Stock Down 2.0 %

Shares of Ulta Beauty stock opened at $405.01 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $18.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.21, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.28. Ulta Beauty has a twelve month low of $318.17 and a twelve month high of $574.76. The company’s fifty day moving average is $404.52 and its 200 day moving average is $384.77.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 5th. The specialty retailer reported $5.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.45 by $0.69. The company had revenue of $2.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. Ulta Beauty had a return on equity of 51.95% and a net margin of 10.58%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $5.07 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ulta Beauty will post 23.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Lifestyle Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Lifestyle Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,815 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $1,224,000 after acquiring an additional 405 shares during the last quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Ulta Beauty during the fourth quarter worth about $271,000. Advisory Alpha LLC bought a new stake in Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter worth about $215,000. Simon Quick Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter valued at about $203,000. Finally, Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 43.8% during the 4th quarter. Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 837 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $364,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares during the period. 90.39% of the stock is 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.