What to Expect When Ulta Beauty Reports Earnings

By Chris Lange Updated Jan 13, 7:30AM EST · Published May 26, 1:15PM EDT

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What to Expect When Ulta Beauty Reports Earnings — © Thinkstock

Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. (NASDAQ: ULTA) is set to release its fiscal first-quarter earnings report after markets close on Thursday. The Thomson Reuters consensus estimates call for earnings of $1.29 per share on $1.03 billion in revenue. In the same period of last year, it posted per-share earnings of $1.04 and revenue of $868.12 million billion.

In the most recent earnings report, the company noted in its guidance that it expects to have earnings in the range of $1.25 to $1.30 per share and revenues in the range of $1.016 billion to $1.033 billion, with comparable sales increasing 9% to 11%.

In the previous quarter, comparable sales increased 12.5%, compared to an increase of 11.1% in the fourth quarter of last year. The 12.5% same-store sales increase was driven by 8.6% growth in transactions and 3.9% growth in average ticket. At the same time, e-commerce sales grew 44.2% to $94.8 million from $65.7 million.

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The company is continuing to benefit from the powerful combination of strong demand in the beauty category and Ulta Beauty’s highly differentiated offering that propels its business to transcend prevailing trends across the retail landscape.

A few analysts weighed in on the company ahead of its earnings:

Oppenheimer reiterated a Buy rating.
JPMorgan reiterated an Overweight rating.
Raymond James has a Market Perform rating.
BB&T initiated coverage with a Hold rating.
Piper Jaffray reiterated a Buy rating.

So far in 2016, the stock is up 14%, outperforming the broad markets. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock is up over 36%.

Shares of Ulta were trading at $212.98 on Thursday, with a consensus analyst price target of $212.31 and a 52-week trading range of $120.38 to $214.44.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.