Ulta Beauty CEO Steelman Touts Strategy Reset; New CFO Targets SG&A Discipline, $1.5B Buybacks

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MarketBeat

Wed, April 8, 2026 astatine 12:04 PM CDT 7 min read

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CEO Kecia Steelman says a “strategy reset” and enactment buildout are driving momentum done the “Ulta Beauty Unleashed” program that emphasizes the halfway concern (100 caller brands, integer and experiential marketing), margin-accretive maturation (marketplace, wellness, UB Media) and planetary expansion, notably the Space NK acquisition to turn successful the U.K.
New CFO Chris Dilauris is instituting fiscal discipline—using zero-based budgeting and a productivity docket to bring SG&A backmost successful line—and the institution is expanding stock repurchases to astir $1.5 billion for the year, astir a 50% bump from the archetypal plan.
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Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) CEO Kecia Steelman told investors astatine a J.P. Morgan lawsuit that the company’s caller momentum reflects a premix of clearer strategy, enactment changes, and execution crossed merchandising, digital, and newer nett streams, portion recently hired CFO Chris Dilauris outlined a renewed absorption connected fiscal subject and “harvesting” anterior investments.

JPMorgan Senior Analyst Christopher Horvers opened the treatment by pointing to respective initiatives implemented implicit Steelman’s archetypal 16 months arsenic CEO, including the acquisition of Space NK successful the U.K., the motorboat of Rare Beauty, the rollout of Ulta Beauty connected TikTok Shop, and the motorboat of a marketplace. Horvers characterized the play arsenic a “share inflection story” fixed that broader manufacture maturation was “pretty similar” crossed 2024 and 2025.

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Steelman said the turnaround was “not conscionable 1 thing,” highlighting her absorption connected “clarity of the strategy” crossed each levels of the enactment and “getting my enactment squad successful place.” She besides pointed to the company’s “Ulta Beauty Unleashed plan,” which she described arsenic having 3 components: driving the halfway business, driving margin-accretive businesses, and realigning the instauration for the future.

On the halfway business, Steelman emphasized marque building, noting Ulta launched “100 caller brands” successful 2025 and pursued taste relevance done partnerships and beingness astatine events specified arsenic the Cowboy Carter Tour, Lollapalooza, and Coachella. She besides cited integer investments that added functionality to e-commerce. For margin-accretive businesses, she highlighted planetary expansion, wellness, the marketplace, and “UB Media.”

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