Ulta shares pop as beauty retailer beats Wall Street expectations and hikes earnings outlook

Ulta Beauty on Tuesday reported quarterly outcomes that beat on the highest and backside traces and hiked its earnings outlook as the retailer noticed a powerful begin to its fiscal yr.

Shares of the corporate rose as a lot as 7% in prolonged buying and selling.

This is how the corporate carried out in its fiscal first quarter in contrast with what Wall Street was anticipating, in keeping with a survey of analysts by LSEG:

• Earnings per share: $7.74 vs. $6.86 anticipated
• Income: $3.16 billion vs. $3.10 billion anticipated

For the three-month interval ended Might 2, Ulta noticed web gross sales enhance roughly 11% in comparison with the year-ago interval. It reported comparable gross sales rose 5.3%, in comparison with StreetAccount estimates of up 4.6%.

Ulta reaffirmed its full-year same-store gross sales and income projections, however raised its full-year EPS steering to between $28.36 and $28.80. Its earlier outlook was earnings per share between $28.05 and $28.55.

“Fiscal 2026 is off to a powerful begin pushed by broad-based development throughout all channels and main classes,” CEO Kecia Steelman stated in an announcement. “Our outcomes reveal the strengths of our mannequin, centered execution of our gifted associates and the effectiveness of our technique in an unsure macroeconomic panorama.”

On a name with analysts on Tuesday, Steelman stated the launch of Ulta’s TikTok Store, with a concentrate on Ulta-specific merchandise, in the course of the quarter contributed to its success. The corporate additionally launched greater than 20 new manufacturers in the course of the quarter, together with Selena Gomez’s widespread make-up model, Uncommon Beauty.

The corporate stated its strongest class for the quarter was fragrances, growing from 11% to 12% of complete income.

The earnings come as client confidence takes a dip amid hovering fuel costs and rising inflation, resulting in a pullback in discretionary spending.

“We’re working from a place of energy on this atmosphere and have a number of levers to fulfill visitors’ worth wants,” Steelman stated on the decision.