Ulta Salon Tops Q1 Views

Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc. ULTA reported better-than-expected results for the first quarter. The Bolingbrook, Illinois-based company reported a quarterly profit of $66.9 million, or $1.04 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $50 million, or $0.77 per share. Its net sales gained around 21.6 percent year-over-year to $868.1 million from $713.8 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.93 per share on revenue of $846 million. The average estimate among 20 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.93 per share and revenue of $835.74 million. Its comparable sales climbed 11.4 percent in the quarter, versus an 8.7 percent growth in the year-earlier quarter. Salon sales jumped 20.5 percent to $51.3 million, while E-commerce sales jumped 49.8 percent to $44.0 million. Gross margin widened to 34.9 percent from 34.5 percent. Operating income rose 33.0 percent to $107.6 million. During the first quarter, Ulta repurchased 192,422 shares of its stock at a cost of around $28 million. At the end of the first quarter, merchandise inventories totaled $662.9 million, versus $531.4 million at the end of the year-ago quarter. "The ULTA Beauty team delivered an excellent start to 2015, with better than expected sales and earnings growth in the first quarter," said Mary Dillon, Chief Executive Officer. "We achieved our best comparable sales growth since 2011, driven by strong traffic growth in both retail and e-commerce, market share gains across all categories, and continued successful execution of our marketing strategies." For the fiscal 2015, Ulta now projects EPS growth at the high-end of its earlier outlook of 15 percent to 17 percent. It expects total sales to rise in the mid to high teens percentage range and comparable sales to increase around 7 percent to 9 percent. For the current quarter, the company expects profit of $1.07 to $1.12 per share on revenue of $854 million to $868 million. Analysts had projected earnings of $1.09 per share on revenue of $859.3 million. Ulta shares rose 1.19 percent to $158.13 in the after-hours trading session.