Ulta Salon quarterly profit jumps

Ulta Salon Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. on Thursday said its fourth-quarter profit rose 65 percent as its sales and merchandise margins improved.

Its profit rose to $20.2 million, or 34 cents per share, from $12.3 million, or 21 cents per share, a year earlier, topping analyst expectations.

The company's sales rose 16 percent $396.4 million. Sales at its stores that have been open at least 14 months rose 6.2 percent in the quarter compared with a drop of 5.5 percent a year earlier. The figure is considered a key gauge of a retailer's health because it is not skewed by results from stores that opened or closed during the year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected Ulta to report earnings of 30 cents per share on $390 million in revenue.

The company's full-year profit rose 56 percent to $39.4 million, or 66 cents per share, from $25.3 million, or 43 cents per share, the year before. Its overall sales rose 13 percent to $1.2 billion and sales at its stores that had been open more than 14 months rose 1.4 percent.