Why Is Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc. (ULTA)’s Stock Advancing Today?

Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)’s stock has opened nearly 10% higher on the back of the company posting its financial results for the third quarter of its fiscal 2015. For the quarter ended October 31, Ulta reported an annual net sales growth of 22% to $910.70 million, while its profit advanced to $1.11 per share from $0.91 a year earlier. Moreover, the results exceeded the analysts’ estimates of $1.05 in EPS and $880 million in revenue.

In addition to that, the beauty retailer delivered a 12.8% comparable sales growth, compared to a 9.5% increase a year earlier. For the current quarter, the company forecasts EPS in the range of $1.48 to $1.53 and revenue between $1.21 billion and $1.23 billion, which compare to the Street’s expectations of $1.50 and $1.22 billion, respectively. For the full fiscal 2015, Ulta’s outlook includes EPS and sales growth in the low 20% range and 20% range, respectively.

Counting in today’s jump, Ulta’s stock has surged by almost 40% so far this year, a fact that was not left unnoticed by the smart money investors that we track at Insider Monkey, who have amassed 18% of the company. Even though, the number of funds with long positions inched down by two to 30, the total value of their holdings advanced to $1.88 billion, from $1.53 billion during the third quarter.

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Keeping this in mind, on the following page, we’re going to take a closer look at the latest action regarding Ulta Salon among the investors from our database.