Ulta Beauty sinks after posting a disappointing guidance

• Ulta Beauty reported third-quarter earnings that topped expectations, but guidance was light.

• Shares fell more than 6% following the results.

• The stock has been rallying since August 30 - up 18.8% - when Kylie Jenner announced she would sell her cosmetic brand in Ulta Beauty stores during the holiday shopping season.

• Watch Ulta Beauty trade live.

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The cosmetics retailer Ulta Beauty fell as much as 7.05% to $US272.27 a share late Thursday after the company reported disappointing guidance.

Here are the key numbers compared to what analysts are expecting according to Bloomberg:

• Adjusted earnings per share:$US2.18 versus an expected $US2.16

• Revenue: $US1.56 billion versus an expected $US1.56 billion

• Q4 Guidance: $US3.50 to 3.55 versus an expected $US3.62

"Ulta Beauty's strong performance in the third quarter reflects continued market share gains across all major categories, acceleration in our overall comp driven by healthy traffic, excellent new store productivity, and robust e-commerce growth," CFO Mary Dillon said in a press release.

Shares were little changed before the results on Thursday, trading near $US290 apiece. The stock has been rallying since August 30 - up 18.8% - when reality star Kylie Jenner announced she would sell her cosmetic brand in Ulta Beauty stores during the holiday shopping season.

"I'm so excited to let you guys know that @KylieCosmetics will be coming to all @ultabeauty stores around the country this holiday!" the 21-year-old entrepreneur tweeted in August to her 25 million followers, adding that there was "more to come…"

Wall Street has been waiting to see how the partnership can drive traffic.

"Traffic surrounding the Kylie Cosmetics launch was particularly strong; checks through Black Friday weekend point to meaningful share transfer from legacy channels to Specialty formats," Stephanie Wissink, a Jefferies analyst said ahead of the earnings release.

"Our webscrapes related to the 'newness' factor also point to a growing number of 'exclusive' stock keeping units and higher week/week changeovers, especially online."

Wissink had a buy rating and price target of $US335 - 15.5% above where shares were trading Thursday.

Ulta Beauty was up 26.34% this year through Thursday.

Now read:

• Kylie Jenner saved Ulta Beauty from a brutal earnings report - and catapulted shares to their best level in over a year

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