Jones Financial Companies Lllp Buys 7,851 Shares of Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 38.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 28,500 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,851 shares during the quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp’s holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $12,396,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ULTA. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,188,730 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $461,059,000 after buying an additional 10,153 shares during the period. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board bought a new position in Ulta Beauty in the third quarter worth approximately $359,480,000. Champlain Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in Ulta Beauty by 5.4% in the third quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 610,400 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $237,519,000 after acquiring an additional 31,540 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 3,246.2% during the third quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 346,262 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $134,737,000 after acquiring an additional 335,914 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB raised its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 33.9% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 321,605 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $125,143,000 after purchasing an additional 81,414 shares during the period. 90.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $457.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $455.00 to $475.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $385.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ulta Beauty from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Loop Capital increased their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $459.22.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

Shares of ULTA opened at $348.86 on Tuesday. Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a 1 year low of $318.17 and a 1 year high of $574.76. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $401.43 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $388.82. The firm has a market cap of $16.18 billion, a PE ratio of 13.96, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.28.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 5th. The specialty retailer reported $5.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.45 by $0.69. The business had revenue of $2.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $5.07 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ulta Beauty, Inc. will post 23.96 earnings per share 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.