Natixis Advisors L.P. Acquires 24,608 Shares of Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

Natixis Advisors L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) by 53.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 70,594 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 24,608 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors L.P. owned about 0.15% of Ulta Beauty worth $34,589,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ULTA. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Ulta Beauty during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its position in shares of Ulta Beauty by 364.3% during the 3rd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 65 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 51 shares during the period. BKM Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ulta Beauty in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC grew its position in Ulta Beauty by 7,300.0% in the third quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 74 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the period. Finally, Webster Bank N. A. bought a new stake in Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. Institutional investors own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Ulta Beauty

In other news, COO Kecia Steelman sold 20,950 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.39, for a total transaction of $11,027,870.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 10,494 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,523,936.66. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Ulta Beauty news, COO Kecia Steelman sold 20,950 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.39, for a total value of $11,027,870.50. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 10,494 shares in the company, valued at $5,523,936.66. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Catherine Ann Halligan sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.26, for a total transaction of $263,130.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 24,552 shares of company stock worth $12,920,326. 0.34% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

ULTA opened at $397.39 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $486.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $468.89. Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $368.02 and a fifty-two week high of $574.76. The company has a market cap of $19.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.36.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 14th. The specialty retailer reported $8.08 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $7.49 by $0.59. The company had revenue of $3.55 billion during 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 previous year, the company posted $6.68 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Ulta Beauty, Inc. will post 26.55 EPS for the current year.

Ulta Beauty declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, March 14th that allows the company to buyback $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the specialty retailer to reacquire up to 7.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ULTA has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $505.00 to $565.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Ulta Beauty from $575.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 15th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Ulta Beauty from $665.00 to $595.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Ulta Beauty from $480.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on Ulta Beauty from $575.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $548.05.

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.