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Ulta Beauty (ULTA) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, Ulta Beauty (ULTA) closed at $371, marking a -0.12% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.48%.

Heading into today, shares of the beauty products retailer had lost 2.79% over the past month, lagging the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 1.4% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.46% in that time.

ULTA will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect ULTA to post earnings of $2.39 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 45.73%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $1.89 billion, up 21.53% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $15.09 per share and revenue of $8.35 billion. These totals would mark changes of +223.82% and +35.77%, respectively, from last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for ULTA should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.29% higher. ULTA is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Investors should also note ULTA's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 24.62. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 13.84.

Also, we should mention that ULTA has a PEG ratio of 1.89. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Retail - Miscellaneous industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1 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 104, which puts it in the top 41% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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