Avanza Fonder AB Buys New Shares in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

Avanza Fonder AB purchased a new position in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 4,376 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $1,903,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Congress Park Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. Congress Park Capital LLC now owns 1,570 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $683,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Beech Hill Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty during the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,039,000. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. grew its position in Ulta Beauty by 77.6% in the 4th quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 206 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $90,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the period. Kathmere Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ulta Beauty in the 4th quarter valued at $216,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 258.3% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 126,190 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $54,884,000 after buying an additional 90,972 shares during the last quarter. 90.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ulta Beauty Trading Down 2.0 %

ULTA opened at $405.01 on Friday. Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a 12 month low of $318.17 and a 12 month high of $574.76. The company has a market cap of $18.78 billion, a PE ratio of 16.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a 50 day moving average of $404.03 and a 200 day moving average of $384.76.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The specialty retailer reported $5.14 earnings per share 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 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 earned $5.07 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Ulta Beauty, Inc. will post 23.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ULTA. DA Davidson lifted their price objective 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $426.00 to $424.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Ulta Beauty from $505.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Raymond James decreased their price target on Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $440.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group restated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $460.30.

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.