Ulta Salon Cosmetics And Fragrances Inc.: Final Report

Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrances Inc. - Final Report
Ulta Salon Cosmetics and Fragrances Inc. (Ulta) is a corporation that sells beauty products and services and their stock is available for investors and individuals to buy and trade on the Nasdaq. Out of thousands of companies on various stock markets and exchanges some are worth investing in while others could be a potential loss. Therefore researching a company is essential to making financially sound investing decisions. Several factors can affect whether or not individuals invest in Ulta and buy their stocks. These factors are Ulta’s long standing history, their products as well as their industry and where they stand in regards to their competitors. Other factors that may impact whether

Ulta is an excellent corporation to invest in given its history as being a reputable and long-standing company. Ulta is a beauty specialty store that sells various cosmetics, personal care products, and offers salon services (MarketLine, 2014). Ulta was established in 1990 in Delaware and the company merged with their subsidiary Ulta Internet Holdings Inc. in 2006. The company’s initial public offering (IPO) was in 2007 on the NASDAQ stock market using “ULTA” as their ticker symbol. (MarketLine, 2014). Ulta’s IPO was offered for $18 dollars a share (Ulta 2014 Annual Report, 2014). The company expanded in 2011 adding an additional 61 stores to their corporation. According to Ulta’s 2014 Annual Report (2014), in the fiscal year of 2014, a hundred new stores were opened with an average investment of $1.1 million dollars per store. Currently, the corporation operates 797 stores in 47 states (Business Wire, 2015). Ulta has a large employment base of both full-time and part-time workers. Their latest employment statistics as of January 2015 are 8,100 full time employees and about 14,300 part-time employees. Ulta headquarters are located in Bolingbrook, Illinois. (Ulta 2014 Annual Report, 2014,

Ulta is a part of the vast beauty industry in the United States which has a high level of competitors. According to Ulta’s 2014 Annual Report (2014), they “operate within the large and growing U.S. beauty products and salon services industry” (p.6). Euromonitor International and IBIS World Inc. report that Ulta’s industry is worth an estimated $121 billion in sales. Ulta is a competitor in all the categories within the beauty industry given their vast array of services and products available at all price points. They also participate in the salon services industry which is worth around $50 billion dollars with their in store salon services. (Ulta 2014 Annual Report, 2014). Ulta’s industry is extremely competitive and allows for many businesses to enter with only a small number of industry entrance barriers. Given Ulta’s substantial product and services offerings they compete with a variety of businesses in the beauty industry. Ulta competes with a “diverse group of retailers, both small and large, including regional and national department stores, specialty retailers, drug stores, mass merchandisers, high-end and discount salon chains, locally owned beauty retailers and salons, e-commerce businesses, catalog retailers and direct response television” (2014 Annual Report, 2014,