Investing.com -- Shares in Ulta Salon Cosmetics & Fragrance (O:ULTA) surged more than 6% in after-hours trading after one of the largest beauty store chains in the U.S. topped analysts' expectations with its quarterly earnings and improved its forward guidance on Thursday.
For the Illinois-based company's third quarter, which ended in early-November, Ulta Beauty saw its revenues surge by more than $150 million to $910.7 million, amid a jump in comparative store sales by 12.8%. The company also delivered a strong online performance over the last three months, as its e-commerce sales soared by 56.3% on a year-over-year basis to $46.2 million.
As a result, Ulta Beauty reported net profits of $71.1 million or 1.11 per share, significantly above analysts' forecasts of 1.05 per share on revenues of $880 million. The company's diluted earnings per share also surged by more than 20% to 1.11, as growth in transactions and average tickets rose exponentially.
“Ulta Beauty’s excellent performance in the third quarter was highlighted by top line momentum driven by double digit traffic growth, leading to above-plan earnings growth,” said Mary Dillon, Chief Executive Officer. “Delivering against our six strategic imperatives continues to drive our business forward. We believe our efforts to build awareness of the Ulta Beauty brand are bringing more guests to discover our differentiated assortment and the benefits of our loyalty program, now boasting 17 million active members."
Moving forward, Ulta Beauty expects to achieve full-year comparable sales growth of 10% to 11%, up from previous estimates of 8 to 10%. The company also anticipates increasing its overall sale growth target percentage range to the low twenties, as e-commerce sales remain high.
Shares in Ulta Beauty soared 10.49 or 6.43% to 163.19.