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An exterior view of an Ulta Beauty store at the Monroe...
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Ulta shines after standout Q1 results and a brighter full-year outlook

The beauty retailer credited a “very successful” 21 Days of Beauty campaign and strong Valentine’s and Easter demand.

Nia Warfield

Ulta Beauty shares were up nearly 11% in early trading Thursday after the beauty retailer reported blowout Q1 results and lifted its full-year outlook.

Revenue hit $2.84 billion, topping FactSet’s $2.79 billion estimate. Earnings per share clocked in at $6.70, far above Wall Street’s $5.80 forecast. The highlight: same-store sales rose 2.9%, crushing the 0.2% estimate, thanks in part to the chain’s annual 21 Days of Beauty sales event and strong holiday momentum around Valentine’s Day and Easter.

Fragrance was the top-performing category, delivering double-digit growth driven by new launches in women’s and gender-neutral scents. Executives committed to doubling down on exclusives and interactive offerings to differentiate from online rivals like Amazon and Walmart.

“I feel like we set ourselves apart when we are able to have exclusivities in our stores,” CEO Kecia Steelman said on the company’s earnings call. “When we’re investing in all of these, what I’m calling like ‘beauty-tainment’-type experiences around these events that we’re doing — these are highly thought through.”

Looking ahead, Ulta raised the high end of its full-year sales guidance from $11.6 billion to $11.7 billion, and slightly bumped comparable sales growth to a range of 0% to 1.5%. Before the earnings pop, Ulta shares were up 9% over the past year.

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Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

  • Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

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