Ulta Beauty (ULTA) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
Ulta Beauty (ULTA) closed the most recent trading day at $491.25, moving +0.64% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.89% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 10%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the beauty products retailer had gained 6.8% over the past month. This has outpaced the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 5.52% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.3% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from Ulta Beauty as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $5.48, up 1.29% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $3 billion, up 9.95% from the year-ago period.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Ulta Beauty. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.02% higher. Ulta Beauty is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Ulta Beauty has a Forward P/E ratio of 21.34 right now. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 14.05.
We can also see that ULTA currently has a PEG ratio of 1.55. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Retail - Miscellaneous industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.94 as of yesterday's close.
The Retail - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 50, putting it in the top 20% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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Ulta Beauty Inc. (ULTA) : Free Stock Analysis Report
