Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) Shares Sold by Skylands Capital LLC

Skylands Capital LLC lessened its stake in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 60.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,490 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 5,300 shares during the period. Skylands Capital LLC’s holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $1,518,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Edge Capital Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty during the fourth quarter worth approximately $33,000. GHE LLC raised its position in Ulta Beauty by 17.9% during the 4th quarter. GHE LLC now owns 4,076 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,773,000 after buying an additional 620 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 3,481 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,514,000 after acquiring an additional 213 shares during the period. Winebrenner Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter valued at about $870,000. Finally, Prakash Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter valued at about $478,000. 90.39% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Loop Capital raised their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on Ulta Beauty from $500.00 to $538.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ulta Beauty from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, DA Davidson increased their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $435.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $459.22.

Ulta Beauty Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ULTA opened at $361.54 on Monday. Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a 1 year low of $318.17 and a 1 year high of $574.76. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $408.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $387.54. The firm has a market cap of $16.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.47, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.28.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The specialty retailer reported $5.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.45 by $0.69. The company had revenue of $2.53 billion during 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 business’s revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $5.07 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Ulta Beauty, Inc. will post 23.96 EPS for the current year.

Ulta Beauty Profile

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.