Ulta Beauty Drops 15% After Q3 Results

Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance (NASDAQ: ULTA) is down more than 15 percent in after hours trading after the company announced its third quarter results.The cosmetics firm announced a Q3 EPS of $0.72 versus the Street estimate of $0.74.Earnings per share were up 22 percent from the year-ago period.Revenue came in at $618.8 million versus the Street estimate of $622.03 million. Sales were up 22 percent year-over-year."The Ulta Beauty team delivered solid top line growth, with particular strength in our on-line sales, despite a challenging environment," Mary Dillon, Chief Executive Officer of Ulta Beauty, said in a company release. "We also made significant progress on our growth strategies, including opening a record number of new stores, seamlessly rolling out a new e-commerce site while maintaining strong top-line momentum, completing this year's roll-out of Clinique and Lancôme boutiques, and continuing to launch new and exclusive products and brands."Ulta Beauty's fourth quarter estimates proved to be much lower than what Wall Street had anticipated.The company expects to report a Q4 EPS between $1.07 and $1.10 versus the Street estimate of $1.25.Ulta Beauty's sales should fall within the $853 million to $867 million range versus the Street estimate of $894.9 million.Today's investor reaction is a bit different from the one Ulta Beauty received when it reported its second quarter results on September 12. On that day, Ulta Beauty shares rose 11 percent during after hours trading.Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.Louis Bedigian is the Senior Tech Analyst and Features Writer of Benzinga. You can reach him at louis(at)benzingapro(dot)com. Follow him @LouisBedigianBZ