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If You Invested $1000 in Ulta Beauty a Decade Ago, This is How Much It'd Be Worth Now

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For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. This factor can impact your investment portfolio as well as help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.

FOMO, or the fear of missing out, also plays a role in investing, particularly with tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in Ulta Beauty (ULTA - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to ULTA for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

Ulta Beauty's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at Ulta Beauty's main business drivers.

Bolingbrook, IL-based, Ulta Beauty Inc., previously known as Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc., is a leading beauty retailer in the United States. Founded in 1990, the company changed its name to Ulta Beauty in January 2017.

The company offers a wide range of products including cosmetics, fragrance, skincare, hair care, bath and body products, and salon styling tools in stores. It sells more than 25,000 products from about 500 well-established and emerging beauty brands across all categories and price points. We note that the company's skincare category has been standing out in particular for a while now, given consumers' rising consciousness.

Meanwhile, the beauty products retailer also provides private label products comprising Ulta Beauty Collection branded cosmetics, skincare, and bath products. Additionally, the company operates a full-service salon in every store offering hair, skin and brow services. Additionally, it offers products through its Website, ulta.com, as well as mobile applications. The products offered by the company include the prestige and mass beauty brands.

As part of its value proposition, Ulta Beauty provides a range of loyalty programs through its Customer Relationship Management platform. It also offers frequent promotions, coupons, in-store events and gifts. The company also makes use of a range of media platforms to advertise products as well as generate awareness. The company strives to boost distribution center capabilities to better support store footfall and online demand.

The company has a strong vendor base and holds partnerships with companies such as Estee Lauder, L’Oréal and Shiseido. Ulta Beauty works closely with vendors to provide improved growth platforms for new and existing brands. As of the third-quarter fiscal 2023 earnings release, Ulta Beauty operated 1,374 stores. For fiscal 2023, ULTA expects 25-30 net new stores, along with 20-30 store remodeling and relocation projects.

(Note:  Zacks identifies fiscal years by the month in which the fiscal year ends, while ULTA identifies their fiscal year by the calendar year in which it begins; so comparable figures for any given fiscal year, as published by ULTA, will refer to this same fiscal year as being the year before the same year, as identified by Zacks)

Bottom Line

Anyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio requires research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in Ulta Beauty ten years ago, you're likely feeling pretty good about your investment today.

According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in February 2014 would be worth $5,820.86, or a 482.09% gain, as of February 8, 2024. Investors should keep in mind that this return excludes dividends but includes price appreciation.

Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 177.96% and gold's return of 54.29% over the same time frame.

Looking ahead, analysts are expecting more upside for ULTA.

Ulta Beauty has outpaced the industry in the past three months. The company is benefiting from healthy traffic trends, greater brand awareness and the expansion of its loyalty program. Management is on track with transformational initiatives, which is yielding. Ulta Beauty is known for its strategy of striking the right balance between online and physical stores. These factors boosted third-quarter fiscal 2023 results, with the top and the bottom line beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate and net sales increasing year over year. A positive view of the beauty space keeps the company well-positioned. However, Ulta Beauty has been witnessing continued margin pressure owing to higher supply-chain costs and reduced merchandise margins, among other reasons. The company’s SG&A expenses have been rising year over year for the past few quarters.

The stock is up 6.89% over the past four weeks, and no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 2 higher, for fiscal 2024. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.

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