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Ulta Beauty (ULTA) Stock Dips While Market Gains: Key Facts

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Ulta Beauty (ULTA - Free Report) ended the recent trading session at $517.66, demonstrating a -1.3% change from the preceding day's closing price. The stock trailed the S&P 500, which registered a daily gain of 0.79%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 1.01%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq increased by 1.15%.

Heading into today, shares of the beauty products retailer had lost 2.78% over the past month, lagging the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 1.37% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.27%.

The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Ulta Beauty in its upcoming release. The company is expected to report EPS of $4.45, down 13.42% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $2.71 billion, indicating a 7.12% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

For the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $24.33 per share and a revenue of $12.06 billion, representing changes of -3.99% and +6.76%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Ulta Beauty. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-term stock moves. To utilize this, we have created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that integrates these estimate changes and provides a functional rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, running from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), holds an admirable track record of superior performance, independently audited, with #1 stocks contributing an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has remained unchanged. Ulta Beauty currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Investors should also note Ulta Beauty's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 21.56. This denotes a premium relative to the industry average Forward P/E of 15.82.

It is also worth noting that ULTA currently has a PEG ratio of 2.89. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Retail - Miscellaneous industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.59 as of yesterday's close.

The Retail - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 42, this industry ranks in the top 18% of all industries, numbering over 250.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Remember to apply Zacks.com to follow these and more stock-moving metrics during the upcoming trading sessions.


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