GHP Investment Advisors Inc. Buys 640 Shares of Ulta Beauty Inc. $ULTA

GHP Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 2.0% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 32,000 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after buying an additional 640 shares during the quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $14,970,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 128.2% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,225,023 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $449,021,000 after purchasing an additional 688,267 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 64.8% in the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 931,557 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $341,453,000 after buying an additional 366,147 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Ulta Beauty by 81.7% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 913,600 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $334,871,000 after buying an additional 410,900 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 10.9% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 813,639 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $298,231,000 after purchasing an additional 79,666 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB lifted its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 17.4% in the 2nd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 545,050 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $254,985,000 after purchasing an additional 80,734 shares during the period. 90.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Mike C. Smith sold 500 shares of Ulta Beauty stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.43, for a total value of $264,215.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,263 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,195,837.09. The trade was a 18.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Ulta Beauty Stock Up 2.0%

Shares of Ulta Beauty stock opened at $519.88 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $531.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $482.74. Ulta Beauty Inc. has a 52 week low of $309.01 and a 52 week high of $572.23. The company has a market capitalization of $23.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.93, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.08.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 28th. The specialty retailer reported $5.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.03 by $0.75. Ulta Beauty had a return on equity of 48.78% and a net margin of 10.31%.The business had revenue of $2.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.66 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $5.30 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Ulta Beauty Inc. will post 23.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ULTA has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen cut Ulta Beauty from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $595.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 29th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ulta Beauty in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $605.00 target price (up previously from $580.00) on shares of Ulta Beauty in a report on Friday, August 29th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on Ulta Beauty from $640.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ulta Beauty currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $550.38.

Ulta Beauty Company 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.