Ulta Beauty (ULTA) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Senior Vice President of Investor Relations - Kiley Rawlins

Chief Executive Officer - Kecia Steelman

Chief Financial Officer - Chris DelOrefice

Operator: Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Ryan, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome you all to Ulta Beauty's Second Quarter and Fiscal 2026 Earnings Call. This conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I'd like to turn the call over to Ms. Kiley Rawlins, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Ms. Rawlins, please proceed.

Kiley Rawlins: Thank you, Ryan. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for a discussion of Ulta Beauty's results for the second quarter of fiscal 2026. Hosting our call today are Kecia Steelman, Chief Executive Officer; and Chris DelOrefice, Chief Financial Officer. During today's webcast, a presentation is being displayed live and has been posted to our website, ulta.com/investor. As a reminder, today's earnings release and the comments made by management during this call include forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections.

These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, factors identified in this earnings release and in our most recent 10-K. The company undertakes no obligation to revise any forward-looking statements. [Operator Instructions] And as always, the IR team will be available for any follow-up questions after the call. And now I'd like to turn the call over to Kecia. Kecia?

Kecia Steelman: Thank you, Kylie, and good afternoon, everyone. The Ulta Beauty team delivered another quarter of impressive results, including 8.9% net sales growth, 10.1% operating profit growth and 13.3% diluted earnings per share growth. Our results reflect consistent operational execution and disciplined financial management. We stay close to our guests, manage the fundamentals with rigor and continued to invest in capabilities that will drive long-term growth. Our differentiated model continues to resonate with guests. This quarter, we saw strength across a number of key performance metrics.

We delivered 3.8% comparable sales growth, expanded the number of active members in our loyalty program by 3%, drove an increase in average spend per member, launched 15 new brands, and increased earned media value and unaided awareness to record levels. At the same time, we strategically leveraged promotions to drive traffic and sales, fueled incremental sales through personalization and increased app engagement with the app now accounting for more than 60% of online sales. Importantly, our sales outpaced the U.S. beauty market in a dynamic environment. We increased our share of prestige beauty while holding mass share flat according to Circana.