The beauty retailer tumbled to its lowest level since late 2022, turning into S&P 500’s worst-performing stock on Friday.

Ulta Beauty fell sharply on Friday, becoming the worst performer in the broad-based S&P 500 index for the day. The beauty retailer’s stock (ticker: ULTA) lost 13.37% after the company reported underwhelming first-quarter earnings data that barely came in above estimates.
Ulta announced earnings of $6.88 a share on revenue of just over $2.6bn. The figures narrowly beat analyst consensus for $6.82 a share. Gross profit for the company arrived just under expectations at $1.1bn, but up from the year-ago figure of $941mn.
While Ulta CEO Dave Kimbell said the year was off to a “positive start”, the company lowered its operating margin of 14.5% to 14.8%, down from a previous guidance of up to 15%. Further, Ulta warned that the way forward may be rockier than anticipated, leading to moderating growth.