Janney Capital Management LLC Has $6.85 Million Position in Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

Janney Capital Management LLC lowered its holdings in Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 1.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,688 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 223 shares during the quarter. Janney Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $6,850,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its position in Ulta Beauty by 28.7% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 166 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $72,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its position in Ulta Beauty by 7.8% in the 4th quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 3,973 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $1,663,000 after purchasing an additional 288 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in Ulta Beauty by 26.4% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 73,137 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $31,809,000 after purchasing an additional 15,258 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in Ulta Beauty by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 10,857 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $4,722,000 after acquiring an additional 159 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Groupama Asset Managment lifted its stake in Ulta Beauty by 92.1% during the 4th quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 2,157 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $939,000 after acquiring an additional 1,034 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Jodi J. Caro sold 902 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.16, for a total transaction of $332,982.32. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,632 shares in the company, valued at $2,817,429.12. This represents a 10.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Ulta Beauty Stock Performance

Shares of ULTA opened at $473.46 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $412.63 and a 200 day moving average of $397.41. Ulta Beauty Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $309.01 and a fifty-two week high of $491.98. The firm has a market cap of $21.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.09.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 29th. The specialty retailer reported $6.70 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.73 by $0.97. Ulta Beauty had a return on equity of 49.73% and a net margin of 10.45%. The company had revenue of $2.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.79 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $6.47 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Ulta Beauty Inc. will post 23.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on ULTA shares. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $467.00 to $404.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $465.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Barclays raised their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $327.00 to $485.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. DA Davidson raised their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $415.00 to $485.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $475.00 to $400.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ulta Beauty has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $462.22.

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.