Jim Cramer Discusses These 11 Stocks & Says People Don’t Understand Tariffs

4. Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 47

Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) is one of the biggest beauty retailers in the US. Its shares have lost 19.8% year-to-date and are down by 35% over the past year. As has been the case with its peers, the stock has struggled due to weak consumer demand which has hurt sales and caused analysts to reduce their estimates. The troubles have also led Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway to sell its stake in the firm. Cramer discussed Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) in detail:

“You’ll see the stock of Ulta going up today and it shouldn’t. But that’s because people feel some relief. They must not have read the conference call. Because the conference call is incredible in terms of how the new CEO, actually literally says, we’re doing so many things wrong. I was, Dave Kimbell was the previous CEO, I used to interview him all the time. You know, Kecia Steelman, come at the company itself. She says look, the company’s never been this intense. For the first time, we lost market share in the beauty category. She talks about they just operated, they have to change, they’re missing opportunities and I came back and just said, holy cow, she’s on the war path against the management of the previous team. Now I don’t think she necessarily wanted that to come out that way. But it made me think that she felt that Dave Kimbell and his team, because they’ve replaced a lot of them, have missed the mark. Quite shocking cause Ulta Beauty is one of the few beacons in what has been a horrendous, horrendous cohort.

“No they weren’t [the comps being disappointing] and that’s why the stock is up. And plus I mean, it’s just been a relentless, you know, Elf has been terrible. Estee Lauder is probably one of the worst plunges I have ever seen in my career. This is a very challenged group and you got to be careful about cosmetics. Remember, Kohl’s and Sephora, the only thing that’s keeping Kohl’s around is Sephora. That was a great deal that they made. But I want to stay away from cosmetics nine ways to Sunday. Anything cosmetics is just no place to be.”