What To Expect From Ulta’s (ULTA) Q4 Earnings

Beauty, cosmetics, and personal care retailer Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) will be reporting earnings tomorrow after market hours. Here's what to expect.

Last quarter Ulta reported revenues of $2.49 billion, up 6.4% year on year, in line with analyst expectations. It was a strong quarter for the company, with same-store sales posting a convincing beat, although revenue only narrowly topped expectations. Profitability was also sound, leading to a nice EPS beat. 

Is Ulta buy or sell heading into the earnings? Read our full analysis here, it's free.

This quarter analysts are expecting Ulta's revenue to grow 9.3% year on year to $3.53 billion, slowing down from the 18.2% year-over-year increase in revenue the company had recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $7.54 per share.

The analysts covering the company have been growing increasingly bullish about the business heading into the earnings, with revenue estimates seeing five upward revisions over the last thirty days. The company has a history of exceeding Wall St's expectations, beating revenue estimates every single time over the past two years on average by 4%.

Looking at Ulta's peers in the specialty retail segment, some of them have already reported Q4 earnings results, giving us a hint of what we can expect. Bath and Body Works delivered top-line growth of 0.8% year on year, beating analyst estimates by 2.6% and Sally Beauty reported revenue decline of 2.7% year on year, exceeding estimates by 0.3%. Bath and Body Works traded down 6.9% on the results, Sally Beauty was flat on the results.

Read our full analysis of Bath and Body Works's results here and Sally Beauty's results here.

There has been positive sentiment among investors in the specialty retail segment, with the stocks up on average 5.3% over the last month. Ulta is up 4.7% during the same time, and is heading into the earnings with analyst price target of $555.2, compared to share price of $556.25.

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