NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance (ULTA) - Get Report are rallying, up 4.50% to $150.68 on heavy volume in early afternoon trading Friday, following the beauty products retailer's better than expected fourth quarter earnings results.

The company reported fourth quarter earnings of $1.35 per share on revenue of $1.05 billion. Both figures surpassed analysts' estimates of $1.28 per share on revenue of $1.02 billion.

Looking ahead, Ulta expects first quarter earnings in a range of between 88 cents to 93 cents per share, in-line with the 90 cents analysts are expecting.

The company also sees revenue in a range of between $833 million to $847 million for the first quarter, higher compared to the $832 million consensus estimate. 

For fiscal 2015, management expects same-store sales growth of between 6% to 8%.

About 3.36 million shares of Ulta Salon have exchanged hands as of 1 p.m. ET today, compared to its average trading volume of about 675,327 shares a day.

Bolingbrook, IL-based Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance is a beauty retailer, providing one-stop shopping for prestige, mass and salon products and salon services.

The company offers more than 20,000 branded and private label beauty products in cosmetics, fragrance, haircare, skincare, bath and body products and salon styling tools.

It also operates full-service salons offering haircuts, hair coloring and permanent texture, facials and waxing.

Insight from TheStreet's Research Team:

Jim Cramer commented on Ulta Salon in a recent post on RealMoneyPro.com. Here is what Cramer had to say about the stock:

Seven for nine. Now there's a ratio.

I am talking about how seven out of nine analysts last night congratulated Mary Dillon and her team at Ulta Salon (ULTA) for the remarkable quarter they announced last night, one where the health and beauty chain recorded an astounding 11% comparable-sales number, a true blowout in every sense of the word.

In the old days of the great bull markets, we had a lot less cynicism and a lot more optimism among the analyst crowd. I am not saying they were cheerleaders, but they did glow on a terrific quarter. That's why I came up with the congratulations ratio. A regular report would garner no kudos. A surprisingly good one might have a couple of hosannas.

But when you got a barn burner, you heard the analyst community gush congratulations at an amazing rate. I knew when you had more than half of them praising the company openly, you had a decent investment, and when you had a ratio of almost perfection -- there's always some grouser or killjoy in the crowd -- you knew to get long and stay long.

Seven out of nine congratulations will do it for me.

-Jim Cramer, 'Ulta Sitting Pretty as Analysts Gush' originally published 3/13/2015 on RealMoneyPro.com.

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Ulta Salon is also a part of the TrifectaStocks.com portfolio. Here is what Bryan Ashenberg and Bob Lang, Portfolio Co-Managers, had to say about the stock in a recent alert: 

Management reiterated its intention to open 100 new stores in 2015. The company was quite positive on how its two small-format test stores performed, and they are in the planning stages of scaling the build-out of a couple of hundred additional stores. Management commented that the West Coast port slowdown has not materially affected business.

In the fourth quarter, customer traffic increased 7.7% and average ticket increased 3.4% on better mix and less discounting. Retail store comps grew 8.8%, driven by 5.7% traffic growth and 3.1% average ticket growth. The strength in comps was led by prestige, mass color cosmetics, and salon services. Ecommerce sales grew 55% and added 230 basis points to the comp growth. Ecommerce still represents a small 4.6% of sales (for fiscal 2014), and management is focused on growing that business. Gross margin at 33.4% was a touch weaker than expected (33.8%) and came in 44 basis points lower than last year as the company saw increased usage of its ULTAmate rewards loyalty program, which now boasts 15 million active members. Lower-margin ecommerce sales also weighed on margins.

On the balance sheet, the company ended fiscal 2014 with $539 million in cash and equivalents and no debt.

Management continued to execute its share-repurchase program and acquired $10 million worth of shares in the quarter. The company also announced a $100 million expansion to its share repurchase program, leaving $360 million in place.

We remain bullish on this cash-rich-but-still-underdeveloped retail play and its 100% U.S. focus.

-Bryan Ashenberg and Bob Lang, 'Ulta Salon Beats the Street' originally published 3/13/2015 on TrifectaStocks.com.

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Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates ULTA SALON COSMETCS & FRAG as a Buy with a ratings score of A-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate ULTA SALON COSMETCS & FRAG (ULTA) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its robust revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, expanding profit margins, impressive record of earnings per share growth and compelling growth in net income. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows weak operating cash flow." You can view the full analysis from the report here: ULTA Ratings Report

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