Ulta Sparks Beauty-Stocks Rout on Warning of Slowing Demand

(Bloomberg) -- Ulta Beauty Inc. tumbled the most since March 2020 after executives signaled cooling consumer demand for beauty products, which weighed on the shares of industry peers as well.
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The retailer’s stock plunged 15% Wednesday. The slide came after the company said at a JPMorgan Chase & Co. conference that comparable sales for this quarter would likely be at the lower end of its guidance for the first half of the year, assuming current sluggish trends persist.
Shares of firms whose goods Ulta sells also tumbled. Elf Beauty Inc. also slumped the most since March 2020, while Estee Lauder Cos. had its steepest slide since the start of the year. Coty Inc. closed at the lowest level in months.
Ulta has seen both mass and prestige segments cool “meaningfully” from its fourth quarter, which ended Feb. 3, Chief Executive Officer David Kimbell said at the conference. He described the slowdown as “a bit earlier and a bit bigger” than anticipated, and called out higher credit-card debt and the return late last year of student loan payments — after a three-year pause — as pressuring consumers.
“We are surprised by the moderation, and, at this point, are unclear whether this represents just a shorter-term blip,” Oppenheimer analyst Rupesh Parikh, who rates Ulta outperform, wrote in a note to clients.
Illinois-based Ulta slid in March, following four months of gains, after providing an earnings update that disappointed investors. Some on Wall Street noted that meeting its full-year targets would depend on improvement in the back half of the year. Analysts project Ulta will post sales growth of about 5% this fiscal year, which would be the slowest pace in four years.