Ulta Beauty, Inc. (ULTA) earnings on August 27, 2026
More Ulta Beauty, Inc. earnings
Prior outlook: Optimistic Outcome: Partial
The stock jumped after earnings but then reversed lower. Analysts made mixed adjustments to their price targets, creating volatility.
ULTA price around the earnings
517.50
Change: -4.2%
2026-08-28, 20:00 UTC
- Price: green if it ends above the starting price; red if it ends below
- Start of the measured window
- End of the measured window
- Market open
- No trading (market closed)
- Starting price
Prior thesis
Prior outlook: Optimistic Outcome: Partial
- Thesis published
- Results released
Strong earnings history, analyst support
The company has a strong track record of beating earnings expectations, with 4 consecutive quarters of results above forecasts. Analysts remain supportive with a Buy rating from Deutsche Bank, and the stock is recovering from a recent pullback. However, it remains slightly below a key technical level.
Context analyzed before publication
- Summary
- Strong earnings history, analyst support
- Playbook
- The stock rose 13% over the past 30 days, outperforming the broader market by 9.4 percentage points. It cases at $542.66, just marginally below the $543.16 support level. Earnings beat rate stands at 75% with an average surprise of 9.2%.
- Trend
- Recovering into earnings, trend strength improving
Analysts
Drivers
-
Analysts
Positive
Deutsche Bank maintains Buy rating; price action recovering into event.
Evidence
- Analyst moves in the last 60 days
- 1
- Strong buy: 4
- Buy: 14
- Hold: 7
- Sell: 1
- Strong sell: 0
- Strong buy
- 4
- Buy
- 14
- Hold
- 7
- Sell
- 1
- Strong sell
- 0
- August 25, 2026 · Deutsche Bank: Maintains rating (Buy → Buy)
News and sentiment
Evidence
Sentiment
- Sentiment
- Constructive
- Mention volume
- High
- Normalized volume
- 99%
News
Sources (3)
- Ulta Beauty Has Topped EPS Estimates for Four Straight Quarters — What About Thursday? (opens in a new tab) — Benzinga
- Nvidia, Best Buy and 3 Stocks to Watch Heading Into Thursday (opens in a new tab) — Benzinga
- Deutsche Bank Maintains Buy on Ulta Beauty, Raises Price Target to $695 (opens in a new tab) — Benzinga
Technicals
Drivers
-
Technical
Neutral
30d +13.07%, RS vs SPY +9.40%; price $542.66 marginally below support $543.16.
Evidence
- Price when the context was analyzed
- 543.18
- Average true range (ATR)
- 3.1%
- Distance to 52-week high
- -23.9%
- 14-day change (14d)
- +2.1%
- 30-day change (30d)
- +13.1%
- 30-day relative strength
- +9.4%
- SPY change (30d)
- +3.7%
- Nearest support
- 543.16
- Distance to nearest support
- 0%
- Nearest resistance
- 548.43
- Distance to nearest resistance
- 1%
- Volume accumulation ratio (14d / 46d)
- 0.83
- Mid: 543.16 (0% away, 0 ATR, 13 touches)
- Major: 538.52 (0.9% away, 0.28 ATR, 28 touches)
- Major: 529.75 (2.5% away, 0.8 ATR, 42 touches)
- Minor: 548.43 (1% away, 0.31 ATR, 4 touches)
- Mid: 551.84 (1.6% away, 0.51 ATR, 19 touches)
- Minor: 557.9 (2.7% away, 0.88 ATR, 8 touches)
Trends
Evidence
- Average earnings surprise
- +9.2%
- June 2, 2026: actual EPS 7.74 vs estimate 6.89 (surprise +12.3%)
- March 12, 2026: actual EPS 8.01 vs estimate 8.03 (surprise -0.2%)
- December 4, 2025: actual EPS 5.14 vs estimate 4.61 (surprise +11.5%)
- August 28, 2025: actual EPS 5.78 vs estimate 5.1 (surprise +13.2%)
Expected move
Drivers
-
Past earnings
Positive
75% beat rate, avg surprise +9.2% — strong execution history, 4 straight beats noted in news.
- Implied move
- +10.4%
- Source
- Options chain
Reactions over its last 20 earnings
- Median move
- 5.2%
- 75th percentile move
- 11.9%
- 90th percentile move
- 13.5%
- Up / down moves
- 8 / 12
- Average up move
- +9.1%
- Average down move
- -5.0%
Monitoring and close
What Ulta Beauty, Inc. reported
- Status
- Finished
| Actual EPS | 6.55 |
|---|---|
| EPS estimate | 6.2 |
| EPS surprise | +5.6% |
Ulta Beauty raised its buyback program to $1.8 billion and shares rose 2% after hours. The company now forecasts annual earnings of $28.70 to $29 per share.
Sources (13)
- Ulta Beauty Q2 Earnings Call Highlights (opens in a new tab) — MarketBeat
- Ulta (ULTA) Q2 Earnings: Taking a Look at Key Metrics Versus Estimates (opens in a new tab) — Zacks
- Ulta Beauty (ULTA) Tops Q2 Earnings and Revenue Estimates (opens in a new tab) — Zacks
- Ulta Beauty Beats Wall Street Expectations, Raises Full-year Forecasts Amid Strong Q2 Performance (opens in a new tab) — WWD
- Ulta Beauty beats estimates as sales rise, shares gain (opens in a new tab) — Investing.com
- Ulta Beauty raises annual forecast after quarterly profit beats estimates (opens in a new tab) — Proactive
- Ulta Beauty Raises Forecast as Sales Grow (opens in a new tab) — The Wall Street Journal
- Ulta (NASDAQ:ULTA) Posts Better-Than-Expected Sales In Q2 CY2026 (opens in a new tab) — StockStory
- Ulta Beauty Stock Edges Up After Upbeat Earnings (opens in a new tab) — Barrons.com
- Ulta Beauty Raises FY 2026 Buyback Plan From $1.5B To $1.8B (opens in a new tab) — Benzinga
- Ulta Beauty Raises FY2026 GAAP EPS Guidance from $28.36-$28.80 to $28.70-$29.00 vs $28.94 Est; Raises FY2026 Sales Guidance from $13.136B-$13.260B to $13.223B-$13.285B vs $13.209B Est (opens in a new tab) — Benzinga
- Ulta Beauty Q2 EPS $6.55 Beats $6.16 Estimate, Sales $3.036B Beat $2.955B Estimate (opens in a new tab) — Benzinga
- Earnings per share: $6.55 vs $6.20 expected — above expectations. — Yahoo Finance + Finnhub
Pre-market second reading after the results
There is no second reading available for this event.
How the stock reacted
- Outcome
- Partial
- Consolidated
- -4.2%
- Max favorable move (MFE)
- 4.6%
- Max adverse move (MAE)
- 6.9%