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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