ING Groep NV Takes $15.19 Million Position in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

ING Groep NV acquired a new stake in Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 34,918 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $15,187,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty by 83.7% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 14,774 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $5,749,000 after purchasing an additional 6,730 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 22.4% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 240 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $93,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 63.0% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 5,468 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $2,128,000 after purchasing an additional 2,114 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 22.3% in the 3rd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,019 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $1,564,000 after purchasing an additional 732 shares during the period. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 14.5% in the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 11,473 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $4,464,000 after purchasing an additional 1,451 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

Shares of Ulta Beauty stock opened at $366.68 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $17.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.67, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.28. Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a 52-week low of $318.17 and a 52-week high of $574.76. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $411.27 and a 200-day simple moving average of $386.56.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The specialty retailer reported $5.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.45 by $0.69. Ulta Beauty had a return on equity of 51.95% and a net margin of 10.58%. The firm had revenue of $2.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $5.07 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ulta Beauty, Inc. will post 23.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Ulta Beauty from $455.00 to $475.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Citigroup increased their price target on Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $457.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Ulta Beauty from $505.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. TD Cowen increased their price target on Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Ulta Beauty from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ulta Beauty has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $459.22.

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.