Ulta Stock Rises as Beauty Shares Mixed to Start Holiday Season

Key Takeaways

Cosmetic companies’ stocks had a colorful morning Monday, with their shares moving in various directions as investors digested preliminary Black Friday data.

Shares of e.l.f. Beauty (

ELF

) and Ulta Beauty (

ULTA

) both dipped some 3.5% early Monday as the S&P 500 crept higher. By late morning, Ulta was up nearly 1%, while e.l.f. was down just 1.1%.

Ulta drew nearly 6% more visits this
Black Friday
compared to last year, according to Placer.ai, which tracks store visits. The broader health, beauty and self-care sector had a lackluster showing, with traffic falling, according to Placer.ai and another foot-traffic tracking firm, RetailNext.

Retailers still count on the holiday season to
deliver visitors to their stores
even as their digital businesses have grown. Makeup and skin care were among the most-ordered items using the Shopify (

SHOP

) platform over the Thanksgiving, the company said.

E.l.f. shares have generally risen —
despite scrutiny from a short-seller
— since the company reported
better earnings than expected about a month ago.

Estée Lauder Cos. (

EL

) was up 2.6% Monday, while Coty (

‘

), the parent company of CoverGirl and Sally Hansen, was up 2%.

Ulta is slated to release its third-quarter earnings
Tuesday afternoon
, when analysts expect to hear that revenue was $2.4 billion — about flat from last year — and net profit fell slightly to $213.1 million, according to estimates from Visible Alpha.