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Ulta Beauty added to Analyst Focus List at JPMorgan. JPMorgan analyst Christopher Horvers added Ulta Beauty to his firm's U.S. Equity Analyst Focus List as a growth strategy. He keeps an Overweight rating on the shares with a $345 price target. The analyst sees Ulta as one of the best "relative/absolute rerating opportunities" in his coverage. The fundamentals of the story, namely unit growth, share gains and a differentiated retail concept, "remain strong," Horvers tells investors in a research note.

Ulta Beauty price target lowered to $280 from $328 at Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo analyst Ike Boruchow lowered his price target for Ulta Beauty to $280 from $328, while reiterating an Outperform rating on the shares. In a research note titled "2019 Retail Outlook report," the analyst says he believes Holiday reads likely slowed post Black Friday, Multinational brands struggled relative to retailers the past several months as concerns around Europe weakness, China uncertainty, a slowdown in tourism and FX pressures are growing, e-commerce meaningfully underperformed Brick and Mortar retail in 2018 as inflated multiples have been hit hard in the face of a painful tech ''unwind'' and choppier fundamentals, 2019 is likely to be worse than 2018 for the space, and Leases are coming onto retailers' balance sheets in 2019, making for worse capital structure optics.

Piper favors Nike, Under Armour, Ulta, Crocs and Funko as 2019 brand ideas. Piper Jaffray analyst Erinn Murphy lowered her price targets across the Global Lifestyle Brands group to reflect the recent market volatility. The analyst, however, feels good about the Holiday while remaining "wary on multi-brand retailers on a longer-term basis." Murphy favors Nike (NKE), Under Armour (UAA), Ulta Beauty (ULTA), Crocs (CROX) and Funko (FNKO) as 2019 ideas. She sees Under Armour as one of the better names to own into 2019 with "what still appears to be a healthy amount of skepticism around the stock." Management's 2019 targets will ultimately prove conservative and upside should continue throughout the year, Murphy tells investors in a research note. The analyst keeps an Overweight rating on Under Armour but lowered her price target for the shares to $30 from $32. She cut targets on 15 names in the Global Lifestyle Brands space, including Underweight-rated e.l.f. Beauty (ELF) to $8 from $10, Overweight-rated G-III Apparel (GIII) to $40 from $50, Overweight-rated PVH Corp. (PVH) to $140 from $150, Overweight-rated Ulta Beauty to $295 from $320 and Overweight-rated VF Corp. (VFC) to $91 from $104.