Hennessy Advisors Inc. Sells 300 Shares of Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 5.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,200 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 300 shares during the quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ulta Beauty were worth $2,262,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Paladin Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ulta Beauty during the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. raised its position in Ulta Beauty by 118.4% during the third quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 83 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Westside Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ulta Beauty by 151.5% in the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 83 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC bought a new position in shares of Ulta Beauty during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $43,000. 90.39% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America raised their price target on Ulta Beauty from $460.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Ulta Beauty from $470.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Ulta Beauty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Raymond James dropped their target price on Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $440.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Ulta Beauty from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $460.30.

Ulta Beauty Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ ULTA opened at $405.01 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.78 billion, a PE ratio of 16.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.28. Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a 12-month low of $318.17 and a 12-month high of $574.76. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $404.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $384.76.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The specialty retailer reported $5.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $2.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $5.07 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Ulta Beauty, Inc. will post 23.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.