Ulta Salon Beats Q1 Estimates (ULTA)
Beauty product retailer, Ulta Salon Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. (NASDAQ: ULTA) reported late on Tuesday that fiscal first quarter profit climbed 20%, driven by double-digit revenue growth.
Shares skyrocketed nearly 10% in aftermarket hours as the Company not only handed better-than-expected fiscal first quarter results but its guidance for the full fiscal year also matched Street’s estimate.
For the fiscal first quarter ended May 4, The Bolingbrook, Illinois-based Company reported net income of $41.8 million or 65 cents a share compared to a profit of $34.9 million or 54 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue soared 23% to $582.7 million.
Earlier in March, the Company provided earnings guidance of 60 cents to 63 cents a share on sales of $568 million to $577 million, which was short of analysts’ consensus estimate, at that moment. Analysts’ consensus estimate was for earnings of 62 cents a share on revenue of $576 million.
Same-store-sales (including e-commerce sales) increased 6.7%.
Gross margin narrowed to 35% from 36%.
Ulta Salon, which sells beauty salon products and provides salon services in the U.S, has consistently posted double digit growth both revenue growth for many years, aided by strong same-store-sales and opening of new stores. The Company is now working hard to buoy up its revenue from online business.
Commenting over the results, Ulta Salon’s Interim Chief Executive Dennis Eck said in a statement, “We are pleased to announce a strong start to fiscal 2013, with better than expected sales and margin performance. We are on track to add 125 stores this year, and continue to drive outstanding new store productivity.”
For the current quarter, the Company anticipates earnings to be in the range of 64 cents to 67 cents a share on sales of $579 million to $589 million while analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting 68 cents and $590 million, respectively.
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Post Written By: Ed Liston
Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.
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