JPMorgan Chase & Co. Cuts Holdings in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced its holdings in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 39.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 502,700 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 324,892 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned about 1.08% of Ulta Beauty worth $218,640,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Edgestream Partners L.P. grew its position in Ulta Beauty by 63.2% during the third quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 4,380 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,704,000 after buying an additional 1,696 shares during the period. Erste Asset Management GmbH acquired a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $812,000. Atreides Management LP purchased a new position in Ulta Beauty in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $73,069,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. raised its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 913.9% during the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 730 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $284,000 after purchasing an additional 658 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP boosted its position in Ulta Beauty by 3,246.2% during the third quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 346,262 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $134,737,000 after purchasing an additional 335,914 shares in the last quarter. 90.39% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on ULTA shares. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $475.00 to $380.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $538.00 to $526.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 14th. StockNews.com raised shares of Ulta Beauty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Ulta Beauty from $480.00 to $475.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Ulta Beauty from $467.00 to $404.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $427.13.

Ulta Beauty Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of ULTA stock opened at $366.54 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $17.00 billion, a PE ratio of 14.67, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.34. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $372.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $386.36. Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a 52 week low of $309.01 and a 52 week high of $529.67.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 13th. The specialty retailer reported $8.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $7.13 by $1.33. Ulta Beauty had a return on equity of 51.95% and a net margin of 10.58%. The company had revenue of $3.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.47 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $8.08 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Ulta Beauty, Inc. will post 23.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.