ULTA vs SALLY Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
Ulta Beauty and Sally Beauty both operate specialty beauty retail stores, but Ulta offers a broad, experience-driven assortment spanning mass and prestige brands for general consumers, while Sally Beauty focuses more narrowly on professional hair care and beauty products serving both retail shoppers and licensed salon professionals.
Ulta Beauty offers exposure to a larger, more diversified beauty retail platform with strong loyalty and salon integration, while Sally Beauty offers a narrower, value-oriented position focused on professional beauty and hair care. Consider whether you prefer Ulta's scale and diversification or Sally Beauty's specialized professional niche.
ULTA holds the edge across 3 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. SBH leads on both 1-year return (+25.26%) and forward P/E quality (7.29x vs 16.15x for ULTA), a relatively favorable combination of momentum and valuation. ULTA leads on both revenue growth (8.90%) and operating margin (12.51%), suggesting a stronger fundamental setup on both dimensions. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for ULTA (+20.60%) than for SBH (+4.10%).
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
- Want diversified exposure to beauty retail across mass and prestige brand categories
- Value a large, engaged loyalty program that supports repeat customer behavior
- Believe in-store experiential elements like salon services can differentiate against competitors
- Prefer a larger-scale, more diversified retail platform
- Want focused exposure to the professional hair care and beauty products niche
- Believe a dedicated salon professional customer base provides more resilient demand
- Are comfortable with a smaller-scale, value-oriented specialty retailer
- See store footprint optimization as a path to improved profitability
| Metric | ULTA | SBH |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 54.0 | 25.1 |
| AI ranki | #500 | #2839 |
| Latest closei | $648.28 | $18.15 |
| 1M returni | +18.32% | +10.54% |
| 3M returni | +25.46% | +21.24% |
| 6M returni | +20.61% | +29.37% |
| 1Y returni | +24.96% | +25.26% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | ULTA | SBH |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $12.81K (+28.1%) started 2025-10-29 | $12.53K (+25.3%) started 2025-10-30 |
| 5Y ago | $17.75K (+77.5%) started 2021-11-01 | $11.27K (+12.7%) started 2021-11-01 |
| 10Y ago | $26.64K (+166.4%) started 2016-10-31 | $7K (-30.0%) started 2016-10-31 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | ULTA | SBH |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $22.13B | $1.53B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 18.83 | 8.51 |
| Forward P/Ei | 16.15 | 7.29 |
| Price/Salesi | 1.83 | N/A |
| EV/Revenuei | 1.89 | 0.77 |
| Analyst targeti | $624.08 | $17.00 |
| Target upsidei | +20.60% | +4.10% |
| Metric | ULTA | SBH |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 8.90% | 0.20% |
| Earnings growthi | 13.30% | 25.00% |
| EPS growthi | +13.30% | +25.00% |
| FCF margini | +7.06% | +4.75% |
| Operating margini | 12.51% | 9.27% |
| Profit margini | 9.34% | 5.16% |
| ROIC proxyi | 46.12% | 23.53% |
| Return on equityi | 46.12% | 23.53% |
| Dividend yieldi | N/A | N/A |
| Payout ratioi | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Dividend growth streaki | No increase yet | N/A |
| Betai | 0.85 | 1.04 |
| Debt/equityi | 95.47 | 173.89 |
| Current ratioi | 1.34 | 2.37 |
| Quick ratioi | 0.20 | 0.49 |
Over the past year, ULTA and SBH have moved moderately in the same direction (correlation of 0.42), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | ULTA | SBH |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | +28.10% | +25.26% |
| CAGRi | +28.15% | +25.28% | |
| Volatilityi | 35.61% | 42.64% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.75 | 0.64 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 1.09 | 0.94 | |
| Max drawdowni | 36.23% | 30.47% | |
| Current drawdowni | 8.28% | 0.44% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 17.27% | 10.34% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 21.26% | 12.96% | |
| Max daily dropi | 14.24% | 8.24% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 20.23% | 15.18% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | +77.55% | +12.73% |
| CAGRi | +12.19% | +2.43% | |
| Volatilityi | 34.54% | 48.41% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.38 | 0.20 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.55 | 0.30 | |
| Max drawdowni | 44.56% | 66.56% | |
| Current drawdowni | 8.28% | 16.40% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 16.68% | 39.03% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 20.68% | 41.17% | |
| Max daily dropi | 15.34% | 13.06% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 20.23% | 20.63% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +166.41% | -30.03% |
| CAGRi | +10.30% | -3.51% | |
| Volatilityi | 38.50% | 50.08% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.33 | 0.09 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.47 | 0.13 | |
| Max drawdowni | 64.92% | 76.68% | |
| Current drawdowni | 8.28% | 37.67% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 17.90% | 48.23% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 22.41% | 50.09% | |
| Max daily dropi | 29.55% | 16.78% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 41.90% | 29.60% |
| Category | ULTA | SBH |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Ulta Beauty, Inc. | Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc. |
| Sector | Consumer Cyclical | Consumer Cyclical |
| Industry | Specialty Retail | Specialty Retail |
| Core business | A specialty beauty retailer operating physical stores and an e-commerce platform that sells a broad assortment of cosmetics, skincare, haircare, and fragrance products spanning mass and prestige brands, alongside in-store salon services. | A specialty retailer focused on professional beauty and hair care products, serving both retail consumers and licensed salon professionals through its store network and e-commerce channels. |
| Investor focus | Same-store sales trends, loyalty program engagement, and the balance between mass and prestige brand mix as competition in beauty retail intensifies. | Sales trends across its consumer and professional customer segments, store footprint optimization, and margin management amid a challenging specialty retail environment. |
- Broad in-store and online assortment spanning mass and prestige brands attracts a wide range of beauty shoppers
- Large, engaged loyalty program provides valuable customer data and drives repeat purchase behavior
- Salon services integrated into stores create an experiential draw that differentiates it from pure e-commerce competitors
- Serves a dedicated professional salon customer base that provides a differentiated, less discretionary demand source
- Deep expertise in hair care and professional beauty products creates a focused, specialized retail niche
- Ongoing store footprint optimization efforts aim to improve productivity and profitability per location
- Same-store sales growth has slowed as competition intensifies from both mass retailers and direct-to-consumer brands
- Physical store footprint carries fixed costs that pressure margins if traffic trends soften
- Faces growing competition from value-focused and specialty beauty brands gaining share
- Overall sales growth has been more challenged than larger beauty retail competitors in recent periods
- Smaller scale and narrower product focus limit its ability to compete on selection compared to broader beauty retailers
- Faces ongoing pressure from e-commerce and larger retailers expanding into professional beauty categories
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