Are Wall Street Analysts Bullish on Ulta Beauty Stock? — TradingView News

Ulta Beauty, Inc. has a market value of $17.7 billion. ULTA is a leading specialty beauty retailer in the United States, offering a wide range of cosmetics, skin care, hair care and fragrance products from over 500 brands as well as its own brand. The Bolingbrook, Illinois-based company also offers salon services in its stores and sells products through its website and mobile applications.

Shares of the beauty products retailer have underperformed the broader market over the past 52 weeks. ULTA is down 9.5% in that time frame, while the broader S&P 500 index ($SPX) is up 31.8%. In 2024, ULTA shares have fallen 23.4%, compared to SPX’s year-to-date rise of 25.8%.

By narrowing its focus, ULTA has also underperformed the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund XLY 30.6% increase over the last 52 weeks and 23.1% return on a YTD basis.

Shares of Ulta Beauty fell 4% after second-quarter results showed weaker-than-expected net income of $5.30 and revenue of $2.6 billion. The decline in comparable sales, weaker merchandise margins and higher SG&A expenses highlighted the pressures caused by cautious consumer spending and increasing competition. Additionally, the company revised its FY24 net sales guidance to $11 billion to $11.2 billion and lowered its EPS guidance to $22.60 to $23.50.

For the current fiscal year ending January 2025, analysts expect ULTA’s earnings per share to decline 11.4% year-over-year to $23.07. The company’s earnings surprise story is mixed. Consensus estimates have been beaten in three of the last four quarters, but not once.

The consensus rating among the 28 analysts covering the stock is Moderate Buy. This is based on 12 Strong Buy ratings, one Moderate Buy rating, 13 Hold ratings, and two Strong Sell ratings.

This setup is less bullish than three months ago, with 15 Strong Buy ratings for the stock.

On November 27, Dana Telsey of Telsey Advisory reiterated a Buy rating on Ulta Beauty and set a price target of $450.

The average price target of $402.80 represents a premium of just 7.3% to ULTA’s current level. The Street high price target of $505 implies a potential upside of 34.6% from current price.

At the time of publication, Sohini Mondal did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article are for informational purposes only. For more information, please see Barchart’s disclosure policy here.

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