NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 22, 2017 / Herbalife's shares saw a big jump on Monday after revealing a share buyback plan and that it had been in recent buyout talks that were terminated. Shares of Ulta saw a drop after analysts at Stifel Nicolaus cautioned about the stock in the near term and lowered their price target on it.

RDI Initiates Coverage on:

Herbalife Ltd.
https://rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=HLF

Ulta Beauty, Inc.
https://rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=ULTA

Herbalife Ltd.'s shares leaped ahead in Monday trading after it was revealed that the nutritional supplement company is buying back shares and that it had been in buyout talks with an unnamed investor. Shares closed up 9.83% yesterday on nearly 7.3 million shares traded. Herbalife had said it was "recently in discussions with a prospective financial investor." The talks were terminated last week and according to the company it was "because these discussions contemplated the possibility of the company being taken private." Herbalife also announced that it would be repurchasing up to $600 million shares in an auction running until September 19th. The shares will be priced between $60 and $68 a share. CFO John DeSimone commented, "Our board and management team are committed to enhancing shareholder value and we believe today?s action is just one more step in meeting this goal." Activist investor Carl Icahn agreed to not sell shares during the offering and also agreed not to acquire more than 50% of Herbalife's shares unless he plans to purchase all outstanding shares. Currently Icahn has 24.6% of the company's shares.

Access RDI's Herbalife Ltd. Research Report at:
https://rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=HLF

Ulta Beauty, Inc.'s shares closed down 4.09% on Monday on about 1.8 million shares traded. The beauty supply company saw its shares drop after several analysts gave the stock a lower price target and downgrade ahead of earnings. The company is scheduled to announce its second quarter fiscal 2017 results on Thursday after the close. Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target from $325 to $270 on the stock with lead analyst Mark Astrachan stating, "Numerous data points suggest U.S. beauty category growth slowed in 2Q17, including from retailers Macy?s M and Sephora, beauty companies L?Oreal and e.l.f. Beauty ELF and scanner data measuring sales trends in food, drug, and mass channels." Despite their concerns, they are still favorable on Ulta in the longer term and said, "We remain favorable on Ulta's longer-term growth trajectory anticipating continued share gains of beauty retail sales, benefiting from the accelerating shift from traditional sales channels to specialty retailers, online, and mobile, and attributable to Ulta's increasing focus on its loyalty program, targeted promotions, and new credit card program."

"That said, we believe near-term trading could result in more downside than upside given broader multiple contractions in retail due to slowing category growth and fears of increased competition from Amazon."

Access RDI's Ulta Beauty, Inc. Research Report at:
https://rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=ULTA

Our Actionable Research on Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE: HLF) and Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ: ULTA) downloaded free of charge at Research Driven Investing.

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