Ulta Beauty (ULTA) closed the most recent trading day at $661.34, moving -3.61% from the previous trading session. The stock's performance was behind the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.5%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.64%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.43%.
Shares of the beauty products retailer witnessed a gain of 12.94% over the previous month, beating the performance of the Retail-Wholesale sector with its gain of 5.24%, and the S&P 500's gain of 0.18%.
Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of Ulta Beauty in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company is forecasted to report an EPS of $7.92, showcasing a 6.38% downward movement from the corresponding quarter of the prior year. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $3.82 billion, reflecting a 9.45% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.
Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of $25.56 per share and revenue of $12.37 billion, indicating changes of +0.87% and +9.51%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
It's also important for investors to be aware of any recent modifications to analyst estimates for Ulta Beauty. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.
Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.18% higher. Ulta Beauty is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).
In the context of valuation, Ulta Beauty is at present trading with a Forward P/E ratio of 26.85. This denotes a premium relative to the industry average Forward P/E of 21.04.
Also, we should mention that ULTA has a PEG ratio of 3.56. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. The Retail - Miscellaneous industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.9 as of yesterday's close.
The Retail - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 36, this industry ranks in the top 15% of all industries, numbering over 250.
The Zacks Industry Rank evaluates the power of our distinct industry groups by determining the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks forming 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 ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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