What Happened?

Shares of beauty, cosmetics, and personal care retailer Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ: ULTA) jumped 6.6% in the afternoon session after Barclays maintained its "Overweight" rating on the stock and increased its price target. 

The analyst, Adrienne Yih, raised the price target by 4.75% from $589.00 to $617.00. This positive revision reflects a broader trend of growing confidence on Wall Street regarding the beauty retailer's outlook. The move by Barclays follows a series of price target increases from other firms in late August, including DA Davidson, Canaccord Genuity, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and UBS. 

Notably, Telsey Advisory lifted the company's price target to $610 from $590, while keeping an “Outperform” rating, citing ULTA's "nice operational beat, thanks to the healthy performance in the first half of the year," following its Q2 2025 earnings results. 

Further supporting this bullish sentiment, recent data shows that 15 analysts have revised their earnings estimates upward for the company. This wave of optimism comes as Ulta pursues global expansion, notably through its recent acquisition of British cosmetics retailer Space NK.

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What Is The Market Telling Us

Ulta’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 8 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful, although it might not be something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was 4 days ago when the stock dropped 6.6% on the news that it gave back a portion of the strong gains from the previous session that followed the company's stellar second-quarter earnings report. 

The beauty retailer posted revenue of $2.79 billion, up 9.3% year on year, and earnings per share of $5.78, both significantly ahead of Wall Street estimates. Same-store sales also showed robust growth, rising 6.7%. In response to the strong performance, which also saw the company lift its full-year revenue guidance to $12.05 billion, the stock initially jumped 7.9% after the announcement. The decline suggests investors may be taking profits after the sharp run-up.

Ulta is up 22.2% since the beginning of the year, and at $524.37 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $533.81 from August 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Ulta’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,206.

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