Ulta Beauty (ULTA) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

Chief Executive Officer — Kecia Steelman Chief Financial Officer — Christopher DelOrefice Vice President, Investor Relations — Kiley Rawlins Kecia Steelman: Thank you, Kiley, and good afternoon, everyone. After meeting our ambitious goals in fiscal 2025, we entered fiscal 2026 with a keen focus on continuing our progress while optimizing our model with financial discipline to deliver profitable growth. Before I dive into the details of our first quarter performance and priorities for the year ahead, I want to share my perspectives on the business. First, our core U.S. business is fundamentally strong and delivering healthy sales growth. Second, the strategic initiatives we are driving to scale new businesses are gaining traction, are contributing to our results and position us well for long-term growth and value creation. Third, we are exercising financial discipline and working thoughtfully to optimize our costs and investments to position our business to deliver consistent double-digit earnings growth. Next, growth in the beauty category remains healthy, even as consumers are increasingly value focused. And Ulta Beauty s diverse assortment, omnichannel convenience and compelling loyalty rewards program uniquely positions us to meet our guests evolving needs. And finally, we are staying focused on capitalizing on the strengths of our model and executing our Ulta Beauty Unleashed strategy to deliver long-term profitable growth and value. And while we are continuing to monitor how the macro landscape could evolve, we remain execution-focused and are confident we will deliver our fiscal 2026 expectations, which Chris will cover further later in the call. Turning now to our first quarter performance and the progress being made on our Ulta Beauty Unleashed pillars. The strength of our business continued as we delivered first quarter net sales growth of 11.1%, comparable sales growth of 5.3% and 15.5% diluted EPS growth. Performance was broad-based with all channels and major categories contributing positively to our strong results. From a market share perspective, we gained share in prestige beauty, and we were roughly flat in mass beauty. Beginning with our driving the core business growth pillar. Overall company performance continues to be fueled by the strength of our core U.S. business, reflecting a relentless focus on delighting guests with every interaction and building on our new go-to-market approach, marketing leadership and compelling merchandising innovation. Our stores delivered another solid sales performance, supported by the successful execution of key promotional and marketing events, including 21+ Days of Beauty and spring haul. As we begin the new fiscal year, our store team is focused on driving engagement, education and excitement. During the quarter, together with our brands, we executed more than 40,000 in-store events, including key activations to highlight newness from brands like Coach, Cecred, Live Tinted and held several workshops to support education for brands Redken, Rare Beauty and Lancome. As we look to Q2, we will stay focused on the fundamentals to ensure we are delivering great guest experiences, driving conversion and fueling sales growth. E-commerce momentum continued with the team delivering another quarter of robust sales performance. The sustained strength of our e-commerce channel is powered by the investments we ve made over the last several years to elevate our infrastructure and the ongoing enhancements we re continuing to roll out, like expanded same-day delivery options through Uber Eats and new Buy Now, Pay Later options through Klarna to improve functionality, expand convenience and improve the guest experience. The convenience of buy anywhere, fill anywhere capabilities including Buy Online Pickup In Store, have been a key driver of our e-commerce growth and of our strong guest satisfaction metrics. This quarter marked the exciting launch of our TikTok Shop with a strategic focus on our Only at Ulta exclusive brands. We hosted our first ever TikTok shoppable live stream at our Ulta Beauty World event garnering more than 5 million impressions and strong GMV, rivaling top affiliate live stream performances. This initiative is driving a lot of excitement with guests and the creator community, which is showing high interest in collaborating with us. In addition, a number of brand partners have expressed interest in offering their products as part of our curated TikTok assortment and bundles. This new channel positions Ulta Beauty at the center of a critical discovery point and will enable us to spotlight our exclusive brands, build influence and fuel our marketing efforts, particularly with younger consumers. Turning to brand building. We are making meaningful progress on our ambition to build multiple $100 million-plus exclusive brands over time. To compete and win in beauty and wellness, we are driving the innovation pipeline, co-investing in marketing wi

Ulta Beauty (ULTA) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

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Ulta Beauty (ULTA) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

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