Ulta Beauty (ULTA) Stock Price, Fundamentals & Analysis

What ULTA does

Ulta Beauty (ULTA) is a specialty beauty retailer operating in the United States, Mexico, and Kuwait. The company sells branded and private-label products — including cosmetics, fragrance, haircare, skincare, bath and body products, professional hair products, and salon styling tools — through its Ulta Beauty stores, shop-in-shops, Ulta.com website, and mobile applications. It also offers wellness products. Formerly known as ULTA Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc., the company changed its name to Ulta Beauty, Inc. in January 2017 and was incorporated in 1990. It is based in Bolingbrook, Illinois, and is part of the S&P 500.

Key numbers explained

• Price: The current share price is 543.81 USD, representing the cost to buy one share on the market.
• Trailing P/E ratio: 19.8 — this P/E ratio divides the current share price by the last 12 months of earnings per share, showing how much investors pay for each dollar of recent earnings.
• Forward P/E ratio: 17 — this version uses expected future earnings, giving a sense of valuation relative to what analysts anticipate.
• Dividend yield: 0% — the dividend yield measures the annual dividend payment as a percentage of the share price; Ulta Beauty currently pays no dividend.
• Beta: 0.85 — beta measures a stock's sensitivity to overall market moves; a beta below 1 suggests lower volatility than the market average.
• Price-to-book: 8.8 — this P/B ratio compares the share price to the company's book value per share, indicating how the market values the business relative to its net assets.
• Return on equity: 46.1% — ROE shows how effectively the company generates profit from shareholders' equity.
• Debt-to-equity ratio: 95.5% — this measures financial leverage, comparing total debt to shareholders' equity.

Recent news

Recent headlines include a comparison of Ulta Beauty and WOOF for value investors, a report that Ulta Beauty CEO Kecia Steelman sold 2,000 shares for $1.1 million, and a piece on Flower Knows celebrating its 10th anniversary with a U.S. retail expansion into Ulta Beauty stores nationwide. Additional stories note an Ulta Beauty Insider selling shares worth $1,091,766 and a general article on Ulta Beauty's move to win back shoppers.

What to watch

Ulta Beauty operates in the Consumer Cyclical sector and Specialty Retail industry, meaning its performance can be sensitive to consumer spending trends and economic cycles. Investors often compare it with peers such as Nike, Inc. (NKE), PulteGroup (PHM), Royal Caribbean Group (RCL), NVR, Inc. (NVR), DoorDash (DASH), Aptiv (APTV), and Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) to understand relative valuation and growth prospects. Key factors to monitor include consumer confidence, retail competition, e-commerce trends, and the company's ability to grow revenue, which has been growing at 8.9% year over year.