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

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Ulta Beauty (ULTA - Free Report) closed at $447.37 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.59% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.59%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.28%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.02%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the beauty products retailer had gained 13.82% over the past month. This has outpaced the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 1.82% and the S&P 500's gain of 6.89% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Ulta Beauty as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be December 1, 2022. On that day, Ulta Beauty is projected to report earnings of $4.08 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 3.55%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $2.19 billion, up 9.67% from the year-ago period.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Ulta Beauty. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

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.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.63% lower within the past month. Ulta Beauty is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Looking at its valuation, Ulta Beauty is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 21.22. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 12.69.

We can also see that ULTA currently has a PEG ratio of 1.52. 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 was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.7 at yesterday's closing price.

The Retail - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 127, putting it in the top 50% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

To follow ULTA in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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