Ulta Beauty, Inc. operates as a specialty beauty retailer in the United States, Mexico, and Kuwait. The company offers branded and private label beauty products, including cosmetics, fragrance, haircare, skincare, bath and body products, professional hair products, and salon styling tools through its Ulta Beauty stores, shop-in-shops, Ulta.com website, and its mobile applications. It also provides beauty services, including hair, …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Margins Stable Across CyclesOperating margin volatility is low (stability score 0.78), demonstrating pricing resilience across cycles.
ROIC Sustainably Above PeersROIC at 83.7th percentile exceeds peers and WACC, demonstrating superior capital allocation.
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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Ulta Beauty, Inc. ranks #7 of 52
scored companies in Specialty Retail by moat score — the top 13%.
The widest moat in the group is Winmark Corporation (WINA)
at 83/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near ULTA in Specialty Retail
Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.
Cost Advantage
Score 75
· 15% of the moat score
A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.
Customer Stickiness
Score 72
· 15% of the moat score
Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.
Capital Efficiency
Score 82
· 18% of the moat score
Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.
Resilience
Score 71
· 17% of the moat score
Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.
Scale & Market Position
Score 64
· 15% of the moat score
Scale matters only when it converts into economics.
Ulta Beauty, Inc. (ULTA) scores 74 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #7 of 52 scored companies in Specialty Retail, the top 13%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 51 companies in Specialty Retail. Its strongest defense is Capital Efficiency (82/100) and its weakest is Scale & Market Position (64/100).
How does Ulta Beauty, Inc. compare with other Specialty Retail companies?
Ulta Beauty, Inc. ranks #7 of 52 scored companies in Specialty Retail by moat score. The widest moat in Specialty Retail is Winmark Corporation (WINA) at 83/100. The companies ranked closest are Five Below, Inc. (FIVE) at 74 just above it and O'Reilly Automotive, Inc. (ORLY) at 73 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 51 companies in Specialty Retail. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Ulta Beauty, Inc. scored with the Corporate Default template?
Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Ulta Beauty, Inc.?
The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and ULTA scores: Pricing Power (76), Cost Advantage (75), Customer Stickiness (72), Capital Efficiency (82), Resilience (71), Scale & Market Position (64). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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