Tag Archives: Michaels Stores

Midday Report: Ulta Salon Shares Fall After Bad Earnings Forecast

By DailyFinance Staff

Ultra Salon and store

Filed under:

Produced by Drew Trachtenberg

A big beauty supply chain may need a quick touch-up: shares of Ulta Salon (ULTA) are tumbling after the company issued a disappointing earnings forecast for the current quarter.

The stock lost as much as 14 percent of its value this morning, falling to its lowest level in more than a year.

(Leigh Vogel, Getty Images for Carlos Miele)

Ulta operates full service salons — providing traditional favorites such as hair services, manicures, pedicures and massages. It also sells make-up, fragrances, skin and hair care products, and accessories.

Analysts say that dual concept has given it an advantage over its main rivals, Estee Lauder (EL) and Elizabeth Arden (RDEN), which depend entirely on the success of their own brands.

Ulta had 550 stores at the end of last year, with plans to open another 125 this year.

Analysts remain generally upbeat about Ulta, although there are some near-term concerns about its stock price.
A Sterne Agee analyst cut his price target on the stock to $90 from $102, following the company’s disappointing forecast. However, he believes Ulta’s longer-term growth plans are still intact and maintains a ‘buy’ rating on the stock.

But Oppenheim has downgraded its rating, citing choppy customer demand. It now has a neutral position on the stock.
On the other hand, Credit Suisse is bullish. It raised its rating on the stock to ‘outperform’.

As for the numbers, Ulta’s fourth-quarter net rose by nearly 40 percent, on a 30 percent increase in revenue. But for the current quarter, the company sees net of 60 to 63 cents a share — well short of the Street consensus of 72 cents.

In addition to the short-term issues, Ulta faces a leadership void: its chief executive resigned last month to take the top spot at Michaels Stores, and a new CFO was just recently named after the former CFO stepped down late last year.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Ulta Salon Earnings: An Early Look

By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Earnings season is winding down, with most companies already having reported their quarterly results. But there are still some companies left to report, and Ulta Salon is about to release its quarterly earnings. The key to making smart investment decisions with stocks releasing their quarterly reports is to anticipate how they’ll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise. That way, you’ll be less likely to make an uninformed knee-jerk reaction to news that turns out to be exactly the wrong move.

Ulta Salon has found great success by combining two popular concepts in a single store: retail beauty products like cosmetics and hair-care products, along with full-service salons. Until very recently, that concept had produced an almost uninterrupted explosive uptrend for the stock. Let’s take an early look at what’s been happening with Ulta Salon over the past quarter and what we’re likely to see in its quarterly report on Thursday.

Stats on Ulta Salon

Analyst EPS Estimate

$0.98

Change From Year-Ago EPS

34%

Revenue Estimate

$753.9 million

Change From Year-Ago Revenue

29%

Earnings Beats in Past 4 Quarters

4

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Will Ulta Salon stay pretty this quarter?
Analysts have barely budged on their calls for Ulta Salon in recent months, keeping their estimates for the just-ended quarter steady and cutting a single penny from full-year fiscal 2014 earnings per share. But the stock hasn’t been doing well, falling 10% since early December.

Ulta has done a good job with its dual salon and beauty-retail concept. By focusing on high-end products and services, Ulta has produced extremely high profit margins on its sales. Moreover, Ulta’s broad range of products gives it a competitive advantage against Estee Lauder and Elizabeth Arden , which are dependent on the success of their own single brands to remain profitable.

Shareholders have already gotten news about what this week’s quarterly results from Ulta will look like. A month ago, the company released preliminary figures that were slightly better than most analyst estimates, with a 30% jump in revenue and an 8% rise in same-store sales showing that the growth story at Ulta remains intact.

Unfortunately, Ulta lost a strong leader in former CEO Chuck Rubin, who resigned in February to head up privately held Michaels Stores. Rubin’s move left the company without a permanent CEO or CFO, given former CFO Bruce Hartman’s resignation in late 2012. Shares plunged on analyst downgrades following the move.

In the coming quarterly report, watch for Ulta to describe its strategy for finding a permanent leader to carry the company into its next growth stage. With the stock having stagnated lately, Ulta needs to move forward quickly to keep its multiyear momentum going.

The best investing approach is to choose great companies and stick with them for the long term. The Motley Fool’s free …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Tuesday Morning Replaces CEO

By Kris Eddy, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Tuesday Morning Corp. CEO Brady Churches has resigned after six months on the job. The company today announced the appointment of Michael Roulea, a Tuesday Morning board member who most recently served as CEO of Michaels Stores, as interim CEO.

Churches will remain with the company as a consultant. He was named president and CEO on Sept. 1, 2012, about three months after the company announced it had “relieved” Kathleen Mason of her duties as president and CEO.

“The Board recognizes Brady’s merchandising expertise and the Company’s recent top line momentum, and is pleased he will serve as a consultant,” Steven R. Becker, chairman of Tuesday Morning‘s board, was quoted as saying in the company press release.

Churches was quoted as saying: “After recent discussions, the Board and I have determined that this transition is in the Company’s best interest. I am proud of the team’s progress, particularly with respect to merchandising and new initiatives aimed at improving the overall guest experience.”

Closeout retailer Tuesday Morning has more than 830 stores in 43 states selling discounted, upscale decorative home accessories, housewares, and gifts.

The article Tuesday Morning Replaces CEO originally appeared on Fool.com.


Kris Eddy has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

(function(c,a){window.mixpanel=a;var b,d,h,e;b=c.createElement(“script”);
b.type=”text/javascript”;b.async=!0;b.src=(“https:”===c.location.protocol?”https:”:”http:”)+
‘//cdn.mxpnl.com/libs/mixpanel-2.2.min.js’;d=c.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0];
d.parentNode.insertBefore(b,d);a._i=[];a.init=function(b,c,f){function d(a,b){
var c=b.split(“.”);2==c.length&&(a=a[c[0]],b=c[1]);a[b]=function(){a.push([b].concat(
Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments,0)))}}var g=a;”undefined”!==typeof f?g=a[f]=[]:
f=”mixpanel”;g.people=g.people||[];h=[‘disable’,’track’,’track_pageview’,’track_links’,
‘track_forms’,’register’,’register_once’,’unregister’,’identify’,’alias’,’name_tag’,
‘set_config’,’people.set’,’people.increment’];for(e=0;e<h.length;e++)d(g,h[e]);
a._i.push([b,c,f])};a.__SV=1.2;})(document,window.mixpanel||[]);
mixpanel.init("9659875b92ba8fa639ba476aedbb73b9");

function addEvent(obj, evType, fn, useCapture){
if (obj.addEventListener){
obj.addEventListener(evType, fn, useCapture);
return true;
} else if (obj.attachEvent){
var r = obj.attachEvent("on"+evType, fn);
return r;
}
}

addEvent(window, "load", function(){new FoolVisualSciences();})
addEvent(window, "load", function(){new PickAd();})

var themeName = 'dailyfinance.com';
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-24928199-1']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

(function () {

var ga = document.createElement('script');
ga.type = 'text/javascript';
ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance