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Ulta Beauty (ULTA) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Ulta Beauty (ULTA - Free Report) closed at $374.48, marking a -0.97% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.08% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.56%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.42%.

Heading into today, shares of the beauty products retailer had lost 1.82% over the past month, outpacing the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 3.94% and lagging the S&P 500's gain of 0.22% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Ulta Beauty as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect Ulta Beauty to post earnings of $4.48 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 31.38%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $2.7 billion, up 22.59% from the year-ago period.

ULTA's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $17.15 per share and revenue of $8.6 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +268.03% and +39.75%, respectively.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Ulta Beauty. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. Ulta Beauty is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Ulta Beauty has a Forward P/E ratio of 22.05 right now. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 12.75.

Investors should also note that ULTA has a PEG ratio of 1.34 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Retail - Miscellaneous was holding an average PEG ratio of 0.67 at yesterday's closing price.

The Retail - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 74, putting it in the top 30% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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