Good afternoon and welcome to Ulta Beauty's Conference Call to discuss Results for the Ulta Beauty's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Results. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Ms. Kiley Rawlins, Vice President of Investor Relations. Ms. Rawlins, please proceed.

Thank you, Sherry. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for a discussion of Ulta Beauty's results for the first quarter of fiscal 2024. Hosting our call today are Dave Kimbell, Chief Executive Officer and Paula Oyibo, Chief Financial Officer. Kecia Steelman, President and Chief Operating Officer will join us for the Q&A session. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you of the Company's Safe Harbor language. The statements contained in this conference call, which are not historical facts, may be deemed to constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual future results may differ materially from those projected in such statements due to a number of risks and uncertainties, all of which are described in the Company's filings with the SEC. We caution you not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of today, May 30, 2024. We have no obligation to update or revise our forward-looking statements, except as required by law, and you should not expect us to do so. Now, I'll turn the call over to Dave. Dave?

Thank you, Kylie, and good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate your interest in Ulta Beauty. For the first quarter, net sales increased 3.5% to $2.7 billion and comp sales grew 1.6%. Operating profit was 14.7% of sales and diluted EPS was $6.47 per share. We expected comp growth this quarter would be in the low single-digit range as we lapped strong performance last year. I am proud of how our teams adjusted our go-to-market activity to adapt to a rapidly evolving marketplace, thoughtfully managed expenses across the enterprise and importantly, continued to execute our transformational agenda with excellence. As we look forward to the rest of the year, we believe it is prudent to anticipate a continuation of the dynamic environment we experienced in the first quarter and therefore have adjusted our expectations for the remainder of the year. Paula will give more detail on these revisions later in her prepared comments. Before we talk about the quarter, I want to emphasize a few important points. First, we are confident in our model and our ability to gain share and drive significant sustainable value over the long-term. The actions we have taken and investments we have made over the past few years have fortified our operating foundation and we are a stronger, more profitable company today than we were just a few years ago. And we have an outstanding team that knows how to execute and deliver profitably and they are doing so every day with focus, passion and determination. However, we are not satisfied with our market share trends and we are taking actions to reinforce our leadership position and accelerate growth. For more than 30 years, Ulta Beauty has disrupted the beauty industry by bringing mass brands, prestige brands, luxury brands and services together in an accessible, fun shopping…

Thanks Dave and good afternoon everyone. As Dave shared, our team responded to the dynamic operating environment with focus and financial discipline. As a result, we delivered net income and diluted EPS in line with our internal expectations. We are focused on reinforcing our leadership position and driving stronger performance, and while we believe our efforts will deliver results, we think it is prudent to expect many of the pressures we identified and faced throughout the first quarter may continue for the balance of the year and therefore have revised our annual guidance. I'll begin with a discussion of our first quarter results, followed by comments about our updated full year outlook. Net sales for the quarter increased 3.5%, driven by 1.6% growth in comp sales. The contribution from 36 net new stores opened since the first quarter last year and a $9 million increase in other revenue, primarily due to an increase in credit card income and growth in royalty income from our Target partnership. Comp transactions for the quarter increased 1.3%, driven by traffic growth in stores and on our digital platforms. Average ticket increased 0.3%. Looking at the cadence of sales throughout the quarter, comp sales in February decreased slightly as we lapped strong double digit comps last year. Comp growth accelerated in March, reflecting the impact of our semiannual beauty events and the benefit of the Easter shift. April trends were positive but softened compared to march, primarily reflecting the adverse impact of the Easter shift. From a channel perspective, e-commerce sales increased in the high-single-digit range. Sales from comp stores were flat compared to last year, reflecting the expansion of brick and mortar distribution points and the lapping of strong comp growth last year. Turning to comp sales performance by category, fragrance delivered double digit…

Before we begin the Q&A session, I'd like to recap our perspective on the first quarter and reiterate our confidence in our plans. Love for the Ulta Beauty brand is growing. Our member retention is strong and our teams are laser focused on delivering great guest experiences, while managing through an evolving environment. We are pleased with the progress we are making across key areas of our business and we are taking steps to drive stronger performance through strengthening our assortment, expanding our relevance, enhancing our digital experience, leveraging our world class loyalty program and evolving our promotional levers. We have a strong plan in place to navigate near-term pressures while continuing to invest in support of the long-term opportunity. I am confident in the power of our differentiated business model and our team's ability to execute with excellence against our priorities and deliver value for our shareholders. Ulta Beauty is a force in the beauty industry as we captured a large share of this dynamic category and I am as optimistic as ever about the future of our business. And now I'll turn the call over to our operator to moderate the Q&A session.

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Simeon Siegel with BMO Capital Markets. Please proceed.

Thanks. Hey everyone, good afternoon. Dave, I guess maybe following up on that, I was just hoping you could elaborate a little bit more on the guidance change, perhaps to oversimplify it. And I apologize if this is an annoying question, but I guess are you comfortable that you're lowering it deep enough and now work towards the long-term margin rate? Just any help in terms of thinking how you're thinking about your margin target and the underlying opportunity would probably be helpful. Thank you, guys.

Well, thanks, Simeon, for the question. I'll start with some overarching thoughts and then maybe, Paula, you can give some specifics on the operating margin outlook. I'd say broadly, we are confident in our outlook for the year. As we've assessed the landscape in which we're operating, we see the opportunities ahead of us. As I mentioned in the prepared remarks, there are a lot of positives across our business right now as we see strong engagement in our brand growth and brand love and awareness, strength in key parts and aspects of our business traffic continuing to be healthy in stores and online, newness working, new stores performing well. So we are confident in many of the key metrics of our business and then clear about our opportunity to address some of the areas that we've been more pressured. When we look at the comp outlook that we've updated for the year, which is obviously a key part of our overall model, we feel very clear and confident about that revised outlook here. We do see over the -- particularly in the second half of the year, our lap becomes a bit easier and so as we look at on a two-year stack, we feel very comfortable and confident in that. But I'd say more important, we are taking actions, as I described in the prepared remarks, to address where we have some potential to drive our business even more with more newness, strong marketing, enhanced digital capabilities as we take advantage of the new platform that we put in, and of course, leaning heavily on our loyalty program to take full advantage of our relaunch there. So we feel clear about what's ahead of us, confident in our comp. And then as that relates specifically to the margin outlook, Paula, do you want to give some more color on that?

Sure. Thank you, Dave. Good afternoon, Simeon. What I would say is, as we think about our operating margin guide of 37 to 40 on the comp of 2% to 3%, we've shared that top line performance plays an important role in driving fixed cost leverage for us. And with the comps now below our long-term algo of 3% to 5% comps, we expect less leverage and have adjusted our operating margin expectations accordingly. One thing that I will also share is that in addition to the fixed cost deleverage on lower sales, we've embedded flexibility in our guidance to invest in sales levers like promo, marketing and store labor to strengthen our top line and defend share and so that also gives us confidence in the adjusted comp guide that Dave spoke about.

Great. Thanks a lot. Guys, best of luck for the rest of the year.

Thanks, Simeon.

Our next question is from Simeon Gutman with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.

All right, that was a setup. Hi, everyone. So my question, Dave, talking about prestige and the increased shifting to channels, can you share if that's brands that are deciding to sell on different channels or you're just seeing the customer, I guess, moving over themselves and have we absorbed the worst of that? That's the first part. And then this is connected to the question, is it fair to think that merchandise -- is merchandise margins about 200 basis points above where we were around the pre-COVID time, and it feels like you have an appropriate mix now? You kind of see where the business is going in terms of the tradeoff between sales and gross margin, such that we're not going to retest those pre-COVID lows. Thank you.

All right. Well yes, I'll talk about the overall competitive environment and what we're seeing in there, and then Paula can give you some more color on the merch margin and our outlook related to that. So to reiterate, as we look at the competitive environment, what we, as I mentioned in the remarks, this category has always been an attractive, and it's always been very competitive, given the growth potential, the connection it has with consumers, its margin profile. So we've long, for the entire 33-year history of this company, we've been competing in a very competitive environment. What's unique about what’s going on today, is the cumulative impact of the competitive intensity really driven by significant increase in distribution of prestige, both in store and online. And as consumers navigate that broader choice, they're making choices. We're confident in our ability to continue to engage, and that shows up in some of the results I highlighted, but it certainly is an impact. When we look at stores opening near our stores, we talked about this in the past, historically. We do see a short-term hit to a nearby store when a competitor opens up and we're able to recover and those stores comp at our enterprise level. What's unique about right now is the scale of it to have over 1,000 new locations within a short-term period. It's unprecedented in our history and probably in retail more broadly. So it means that we're navigating that and understanding consumer behavior as we go forward. But even with that, to highlight again some of the things that we see, our strengths even in this elevated competitive environment, holding share in total beauty for the quarter is a real positive as we gained in mass and we gained in prestige e-com, in our brand love, our brand awareness, our total loyalty members, our member retention, our traffic all up, all positive, all healthy, as we see strength with our consumer connection. So your question about our consumer, the fact that we gained 6% in total members, our retention is healthy, we're moving more members up into platinum and diamond and retention of those guests is very high and our brand love reached an all-time high. The connection to Ulta Beauty is strong and we're managing through this really again, unprecedented competitive environment. And all the things I talked about, our confidence in our model, our confidence in the health of this category, and our ability to adapt and adjust our strategies and initiatives, as I discussed, give us confidence both in delivering the updated guidance, but I'd say even more importantly, the future continues to be very bright for Ulta Beauty because we're well positioned with a strong share of the category, strong connection to consumers, and the ability to navigate and adjust our plans as necessary as we've been doing throughout the history of this company. Paula, do you want to talk then about merch margin?

Sure, Dave. Simeon, I'll give a little color on merch margin. When we think about merch margin from a guidance perspective, we currently expect lower merchandise margin for the year due to the lower sales, increased promotional activity and category mix. We saw merchandise margin decline in Q1 generally for these similar reasons, increase in promo, adverse impacts from brand mix, and then we had a bit of lapping price increases from 2023. When we think about 2020 versus 2019, you are correct. As of last year, we were about 200 basis points of merch margin above 2019 levels. And really, what I would say is a lot of that benefit that we saw was coming from ongoing category performance improvement efforts by our merchandise team, category mix and promo efficiency. Now we are seeing that some of that merch margin is getting a bit pressured as we're seeing in Q1 and as reflected in our current guide.

Okay, thank you. Good luck.

Our next question is from Kate McShane with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed.

Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking our question. We wanted to drill down a little bit more on the marketing spend that you're planning to increase for the year. We're just wondering, how much of an increase are we talking about? What are some of the tactics here? And are you building in a corresponding sales lift with the marketing spend? And then finally, just within that, did you elevate the marketing in the midst of Q1 and did that have any impact on the comp?

Well, what I'd say is, as we look forward throughout the year to clarify, Paula mentioned in her remarks that we are protecting our investment in marketing, in store labor and other aspects that we know drive our business and that's reflected in our updated operating margin outlook and we'll continue to invest appropriately as we see opportunities to support growth, so all of that is reflected. The types of things we're doing are continuing to strengthen our connection with our guests. As I said, our unaided awareness and our brand love both increased meaningfully in Q1 after strong growth throughout 2023, we are on a good trajectory as it relates to connecting our guests. The fact that we're driving traffic in both to our stores and online, we're growing our connection to our app, our loyalty, engagement and retention is strong. Our marketing efforts are working. The point in my comments about us finding even better ways and stronger ways to connect is an always on focus for us and we see continued opportunity to drive greater connection through social, so that will be a big focus for us. I highlighted our growth in EMV, which is which we're pleased with, but we know we can do even more. It is the key driver of this category, the way so many consumers are learning and discovering and engaging in the category. So we will continue to have a focus there. And importantly, we're partnering with our brands to find ways to connect as their brands drive growth within our environment. So we're pleased with the efficiency of our spend. It is driving our results and we'll continue to optimize our spend and add appropriately throughout the year as we see opportunities and all of that is reflected both in our top line and our operating margin outlook.

Thank you.

Our next question is from Chris Horvers with JPMorgan. Please proceed.

Thanks and good morning. So I'll also do a two pronged question here. So it seems like the 1.6% comp wasn't really different from your internal plan. And you had mentioned and you had expected improvement over the year on all the factors that you mentioned. So at the same time you lowered the back half. So can you just share with us, was it just you're being preemptive to maybe a hockey stick that you set up? And then can you also talk about, April ex-Easter, was that better than the 1.6% for the quarter ex-Easter shift and any commentary on how May is doing so far?

All right, thanks Chris. Yes, let me take the first part, and again, I'll ask Paula to talk about most recent trends. Yes, 1.6% comp is and we talked about delivering comps in the first half of the year in the low single digits. The reason that we see the need to adjust our outlook for the year is the 1.6% is clearly, and we talked about this earlier in the quarter Chris, at the low end of that range of low single digits. We anticipate the pressures and dynamics that I've been talking about to continue into Q2. And so as we looked at the second half of the year, while we see upside potential through the activities that I mentioned in driving elevated efforts across many parts of our business, strong newness platform and an easier overlap, we do anticipate an increase in the second half of the year, but because of the first half landing at the low end of that range, we see, we felt it was appropriate to update our outlook for the whole year, anticipating some of the pressures, even with growth in the second half of the year, elevated growth in the second half of the year, those pressures continuing through throughout the year, so that all lands us in that updated outlook of 2% to 3%. As far as April and more recent outlook Paula, do you want to talk about that?

Yes. Thank you. So, Chris, as it relates to the cadence for the quarter and our April exit rate for the quarter, March was the strongest period for a quarter. And it's for all the reasons you mentioned benefiting from the Easter timing as well as our expansion of our Q1 beauty event. Comps in April were positive, but did moderate from March as we expected, negatively impacted from the timing of the Easter shift. With regards to May and what we're seeing quarter-to-date, I won't comment on that specifically, but what I will share is that we expect Q2 comps to look very similar to the first quarter comp.

Got it. And then just one quick follow up. You did mention that you expect merchandise margin, I believe up in the back half of the year, but lower in the first half. So what drives the change in the merchandise margin dynamic? Thank you.

Yes. Well, so we expect more pressure in the first half due to the promo and brand mix and that lapping effect of those price increases. And so when we think about the second half, we're not lapping the price increase benefits and we will be largely past the inventory markdowns associated with our rebranding of Ulta Beauty collection. We'll still have the brand mix and promo impact, but net-net, we're expecting the second half to be flat.

Our next question is from Mark Altschwager with Baird. Please proceed.

Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. I wanted to follow-up on the competitive backdrop, but maybe slightly different angles. So you've talked about the increased points of distribution, but at the same time, Ulta has been investing a lot in its loyalty program and its data analytics capabilities for years that I suspect can drive a lot of value for brand partners. So how is your value proposition for these brands evolving? And what gives you the confidence that you can remain a premier distribution point for established and emerging brands even as this competitive environment continues to evolve?

Mark, that's a great question and we're very confident in that. We have worked hard over many years to build very strong relationships with our brand partners, both the largest brands in the category and a real dedicated effort in supporting emerging new smaller brands. And that is an area of high confidence that we'll continue to be connected and partnering with our brands. We are a very large part of the category across all segments; mass and prestige, makeup, hair care, skincare, fragrance, bath, wellness. We play a significant role. We have a unique proposition. Nobody does what Ulta Beauty does. Our stores and the experience we deliver is special and differentiated and our brands recognize that. They value the opportunity that they have in our stores and on our online to connect with now nearly 44 million loyalty members and the activation and capabilities we have to activate their strategies directly with the largest pool of beauty enthusiasts in the country. And we have long been a destination for growth and so many of our brands are driving growth and taking full advantage of that experience. So I am confident in our brand relationships as we work through some of the changes in the category. In my direct discussion with brands and our overall relationships, we are working together to continue to drive growth and strengthen our partnership, add new brands, as many of which I've highlighted, and drive our business forward in partnership with our brands and that will continue for sure.

Thank you, Dave. Quick follow-up for Paula on inventory. As we look at the inventory growth versus the sales growth, the spread is, I think, wider there than we've seen in a bit and obviously you're adjusting your demand outlook for the back half of the year. Any pockets of aging inventory that could weigh on margins and anything incorporated there from a clearance markdown perspective in the second quarter? Thank you.

No, real concern with regards to inventory. I guess for perspective, approximately 75% of that inventory growth in the quarter was attributable to our new brands and our new stores that were mainly due to opening at DC. We do expect that growth to normalize as we progress during the year. And I know we've shared this previously, but as you think about inventory, keep in mind that most of our inventory is current and largely what we consider core product, which means very little seasonal or at risk inventory. And as you mentioned, we do look for opportunities to invest in inventory to best position ourselves to capture future demand and so we are also doing that as well.

Our next question is from Oliver Chen with TD Cowen. Please proceed.

Hi, David and Paula. Regarding makeup being down mid-single digits and also thinking about the newness opportunity there, what's embedded with guidance for how that meaningful category may proceed? And we continue to see a lot of innovation at competitors such as Amazon, which is leveraging a lot of personalization as well as affiliates and community members. What are your thoughts in terms of how you'll remain competitive? And I know there has always been a lot of overlap with product that they sell and you sell as well. Thank you.

Well, so first on makeup, it's the largest part. It continues to be the largest part of our business, about 44% of our business and we have a very large share of that category. And when we look at our business right now, we talked about some pressure on the prestige side. Many of the things that I've highlighted and the mass, the category slowed some as we were lapping a very strong Q1 and first half of last year. When I look out and embedded in our guidance is confidence on many parts of our makeup business and the ability to strengthen our performance in that. On the mass side, we see continued opportunities with several brands, including Elf has performed very well and has been an important partner for us. Exclusive partnership with Morphe. We've got key partnership with NYX, early lead on some of their innovation. We've got brands like Juvia's Place and about base that have demonstrated strong partnership and growth in our business. So we're confident in our ability to continue to evolve that. And on the prestige side, the newness that I've highlighted has contributed and while we've got more work to do there, Charlotte Tilbury is now in 600 stores and online and has contributed meaningfully to our business. We highlighted the continued expansion and performance of our luxury business. Brands like Wyn, the launch with Serena and we're expanding MAC into more doors. That is just rolling out really as we speak into more doors. And we've got a number of really exciting exclusive brands, brands like Live Tinted, Polite Society, Rabanne, Wyn, and others in the makeup space that are just an outstanding portfolio of emerging brands that we are confident will drive growth over time. So we will continue to drive makeup connection. We've got a very big makeup business and we've got clear plans to drive that going forward as far as other competitive environment in the digital space. The efforts that I talked about across our business apply both to in-store and online. One of the great things about our business is when we get our in-store guests shopping online, they increase their brand, love their brain connection, our share of wallet, their spend goes up two and a half times. And our efforts there and we gained share in the prestige e-com business in Q1, despite some of the other pressures that I talked about. So we see opportunity to continue to drive programs like communities and affiliates. We're doing a lot of that, drive more influencers, expand our assortment, and drive newness across the business. So competing both in-store and online is what we do, and we're focused on that and makeup as we are with all of our categories looking forward.

Thank you. Best regards.

Thanks, Oliver.

Our next question is from Michael Binetti with Evercore ISI. Please proceed.

Hey guys, thanks for taking our question here. So Paula, I think the math for the rest of the year puts operating margin below 14%, just the rest of year on a comp range 2% to 4%. Not far from your long term guide. Can you speak to how we rebuild to the level back to the long-term 14% to 15% margin if the comp trend continues at the 2% to 4% type rate in the second half or the comment that you think you can hold share in a category that grows mid-single digits, is that supportive of 14% to 15% margins? And then I guess secondly, as you look at the higher markdowns in the marketplace today and think about the backdrop of some of the key brands and the expanding distribution you pointed to, are you seeing promotions more pronounced in the products and brands that have expanded their distribution the most? I'm curious if there's any link there.

Okay, let me, I'll take the first question and then Dave will talk about what we're seeing from the social environment with the bank [ph]. So Michael, what we've shared is that the top line performance plays a really important role in our ability to drive fixed cost leverage and comps below our long-term algorithm really causes a challenge for us to be able to drive margins at that range above the 14% and 15%. You see that with how we've adjusted our guidance. So on a 2% or 3%, our low end has come down because of the effect of that difficulty of leveraging occupancy costs. What I would say is, from a long-term perspective, we're not sharing long term guidance on the call today, but we do have an Investor Day in October and we plan to share more about the opportunities ahead, how we're thinking about the next phase of growth, and of course how that impacts our financials.

Yes. As far as promotional environment Michael, we came into the year with the assumption that the promotional environment would increase, but remain rational and we built in expectations that we would be able to continue to invest in core parts of our business going forward. What we're seeing now is largely that's holding true. We continue to plan for promotional levels to increase in 2023 because of the competitive nature of this business right now. But as we saw in the first quarter, and we anticipate through the rest of the year, we're not looking to an irrational level, I guess I'd say, of promotional. And we expect our promotional levels to be below 2019 levels for the year. And that's in large part due to our CRM capabilities, promotional efficiencies. As far as specifically about brands, I don't, we haven't really witnessed any specific trends, brands that are in this competitor or in a certain marketplace. It's a broad dynamic going on across the industry again, elevated but still below historical highs.

So, operator, I think we have time for one more question.

Our next question is from Krisztina Katai with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed.

Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for squeezing me in. So Dave, I wanted to follow-up on the call to action items. Maybe if you could talk a bit more about how these are helping with just the increased member retention you're seeing. What you can share on the promotional efficiencies of your different and point multiplier events that you have been working on to spend market share. And then secondly, just how do you view the composition of your brand portfolio currently? And I'm asking this in particular, just your legacy brands with some of them getting their own storefront at a competitor's website. Thank you.

Well, let's see the actions that we're taking to drive our business. I've highlighted them and all of them come in. We came in into the year with a number of initiatives that we're continuing to drive and then we're finding ways to do even more newness being a big part of that. We're excited about our program. I highlighted many of the activities we talked about social and marketing efforts specifically around promotional program. And a few things I'd highlight is we're continuing to amplify and elevate our key tentpole events like our semiannual beauty event we held in Q1, our Spring Haul event. We've got an event coming up in the summer of this year and more throughout the rest of the year and certainly going into holiday. That is an effort that every year we continue to find ways to improve, elevate the connection and the relationship that we build with our guests through the power of these tentpole events. We complement that through a steady effort in promotional connection that's more targeted through the power of our loyalty program and the strength in the personalization efforts and we see that right now we're in the midst of a program. If you've seen in the market what we call member love, it's a three week program, each week highlighting a different category, this week focused on skin care. And what we see with that is a really differentiated way to connect with our guests again, add more value to our guests in a way that only Ulta Beauty can to leverage our personalization and differentiation capabilities, the strength of our loyalty program, and we're pleased with the results. So we'll continue to amplify the big efforts that we have throughout the year and complement that with targeted,…

Okay, great. Thank you very much.

Okay. So with that, let me wrap up today with just a couple of quick remarks. Our teams are working hard to deliver against our short-term objectives while also taking necessary steps to position Ulta Beauty for longer term profitable growth. And I want to thank our more than 50,000 Ulta Beauty associates across the country for all that they are doing. Again, I appreciate your interest in Ulta Beauty, and we look forward to speaking to you all again when we report, our results for the second quarter on August 29. I hope you all have a great evening. Thanks again for joining.

Thank you. This will conclude today’s conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and thank you for your participation.