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Ulta Beauty (ULTA) Advances While Market Declines: Some Information for Investors

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In the latest trading session, Ulta Beauty (ULTA - Free Report) closed at $425.11, marking a +0.13% move from the previous day. The stock's performance was ahead of the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.22%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 0.06%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq decreased by 0.52%.

Heading into today, shares of the beauty products retailer had lost 18.97% over the past month, lagging the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 2.01% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.66% in that time.

Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Ulta Beauty in its upcoming release. The company is expected to report EPS of $6.31, down 8.28% from the prior-year quarter. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $2.75 billion, indicating a 4.36% upward movement from the same quarter last year.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $26.75 per share and revenue of $11.83 billion, which would represent changes of +2.77% and +5.54%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for Ulta Beauty. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. Consequently, upward revisions in estimates express analysts' positivity towards the company's business operations and its ability to generate profits.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.74% lower. Right now, Ulta Beauty possesses a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, Ulta Beauty currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 15.87. This signifies a premium in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 12.14 for its industry.

We can also see that ULTA currently has a PEG ratio of 1.75. The PEG ratio is akin to the commonly utilized P/E ratio, but this measure also incorporates the company's anticipated earnings growth rate. The Retail - Miscellaneous industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.07 as of yesterday's close.

The Retail - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 156, which puts it in the bottom 39% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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