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player ready...Ulta Salon, Cosmetics and Fragrance Inc. said it expects earn between 52 and 53 cents per share in the first quarter — a bump of 42 percent from a year earlier, the Bolingbrook-based beauty company said Monday.
Ulta said revenue should be $452 million to $460 million, a 23 percent increase from the first quarter of 2011, which ended April 28.
Analysts, on average, predicted the company would earn 48 per share on sales of $459 million.
The company said it also expects comparable sales would rise 10.1 percent, up from its previous predictions, announced in March, of stores sales rising between climbing 4 to 8 percent.
Results are due June 5 after market close. The company’s annual stockholder’s meeting is on June 1.
Ulta said it opened 18 new stores in the first quarter compared to five in the first quarter last year. At the end of fiscal 2011, the company said it operated 449 stores in the United States.
Ulta also filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday indicating that there will be a secondary public offering of 7 million shares by entities associated with Mousse Partners, a New York-based private investment firm. The underwriters have a 30-day option to buy up to an additional 1.05 million shares from one of the selling stockholders. Ulta will not receive any proceeds from the offering.
Ulta shares closed down Monday $1.43, or 1.6 percent, at $86.06.
To date, Ulta shares have climbed more than 35 percent.
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