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Why Ulta Beauty (ULTA) Dipped More Than Broader Market Today

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In the latest close session, Ulta Beauty (ULTA - Free Report) was down 1.23% at $650.97. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.35%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.36%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.39%.

Shares of the beauty products retailer have appreciated by 11.25% over the course of the past month, outperforming the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 6.05%, and the S&P 500's loss of 2.42%.

The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Ulta Beauty in its upcoming release. The company is slated to reveal its earnings on December 3, 2026. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $5.6, marking a 8.95% rise compared to the same quarter of the previous year. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $2.99 billion, reflecting a 4.54% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.

For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $28.95 per share and a revenue of $13.27 billion, signifying shifts of +12.91% and +7.06%, respectively, from the last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Ulta Beauty should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.

Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. 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, 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 past month, there's been no change in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Ulta Beauty currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

With respect to valuation, Ulta Beauty is currently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 22.77. This denotes a premium relative to the industry average Forward P/E of 16.11.

We can also see that ULTA currently has a PEG ratio of 1.97. 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 average PEG ratio for the Retail - Miscellaneous industry stood at 1.97 at the close of the market yesterday.

The Retail - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 52, putting it in the top 22% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.

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