New York State Common Retirement Fund Decreases Stock Holdings in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

New York State Common Retirement Fund trimmed its position in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 15.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 37,903 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 6,953 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned 0.08% of Ulta Beauty worth $18,572,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ulta Beauty during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Ulta Beauty during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P increased its position in Ulta Beauty by 364.3% during the 3rd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 65 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the period. Webster Bank N. A. purchased a new position in Ulta Beauty during the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC increased its position in Ulta Beauty by 7,300.0% during the 3rd quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 74 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. 90.39% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ulta Beauty

In other Ulta Beauty news, COO Kecia Steelman sold 20,950 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.39, for a total transaction of $11,027,870.50. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 10,494 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,523,936.66. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, COO Kecia Steelman sold 20,950 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.39, for a total transaction of $11,027,870.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 10,494 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,523,936.66. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Catherine Ann Halligan sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.26, for a total transaction of $263,130.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,665 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $876,222.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 24,552 shares of company stock worth $12,920,326. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on ULTA shares. Loop Capital raised shares of Ulta Beauty from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $540.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $665.00 to $595.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $600.00 target price on shares of Ulta Beauty in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $350.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $575.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ulta Beauty has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $556.52.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

Shares of Ulta Beauty stock opened at $406.39 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $19.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.60, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.30. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $500.18 and its 200 day moving average is $469.42. Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a 1 year low of $368.02 and a 1 year high of $574.76.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 14th. The specialty retailer reported $8.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $7.49 by $0.59. The business had revenue of $3.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.53 billion. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 11.52% and a return on equity of 61.64%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $6.68 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Ulta Beauty, Inc. will post 26.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ulta Beauty announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, March 14th that allows the company to buyback $2.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the specialty retailer to buy up to 7.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.