Neo Ivy Capital Management Acquires New Stake in Ulta Beauty Inc. $ULTA

Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 856 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $400,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 128.2% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,225,023 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $449,021,000 after acquiring an additional 688,267 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Ulta Beauty by 81.7% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 913,600 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $334,871,000 after purchasing an additional 410,900 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted 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 valued at $341,453,000 after purchasing an additional 366,147 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in Ulta Beauty by 237.7% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 270,420 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $96,674,000 after purchasing an additional 190,353 shares during the period. Finally, Interval Partners LP raised its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 2,962.9% during the 1st quarter. Interval Partners LP now owns 191,828 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $70,313,000 after buying an additional 185,565 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ULTA has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $605.00 price target (up from $580.00) on shares of Ulta Beauty in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Ulta Beauty from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 22nd. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Ulta Beauty from $510.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $550.38.

Ulta Beauty Stock Up 3.9%

NASDAQ:ULTA opened at $515.58 on Friday. Ulta Beauty Inc. has a 52-week low of $309.01 and a 52-week high of $572.23. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $530.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $497.07. The company has a market capitalization of $23.12 billion, a PE ratio of 19.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 1.05.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Ulta Beauty

In other news, Director Mike C. Smith sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.43, for a total transaction of $264,215.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,263 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,195,837.09. This trade represents a 18.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.