Piper Sandler Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) Stock Price

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) had its price objective lowered by Piper Sandler from $425.00 to $364.00 in a research note published on Friday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the specialty retailer’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Loop Capital increased their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price 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. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $457.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $475.00 to $380.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $431.13.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

Shares of ULTA stock opened at $357.48 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $16.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.30, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.34. Ulta Beauty has a 1-year low of $309.01 and a 1-year high of $544.36. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $385.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $386.94.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ulta Beauty

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 11.8% during the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 93,419 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $36,351,000 after acquiring an additional 9,863 shares during the period. Sigma Planning Corp lifted its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 49.2% during the third quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 1,159 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $451,000 after acquiring an additional 382 shares during the period. Apollon Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 44.7% during the third quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,399 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $544,000 after acquiring an additional 432 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 1.5% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 111,909 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $43,546,000 after acquiring an additional 1,687 shares during the period. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 24.9% during the third quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 9,907 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $3,855,000 after acquiring an additional 1,977 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

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.