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Compare · BNED vs ULTA

BNED vs ULTA

Side-by-side comparison of Barnes & Noble Education Inc (BNED) and Ulta Beauty Inc. (ULTA): market cap, price performance, sector, and recent activity on the wire.

Summary

  • Both BNED and ULTA operate in Other Specialty Stores (Consumer Discretionary), so they compete in similar markets.
  • ULTA is the larger of the two at $19.90B, about 54.3x BNED ($366.6M).
  • Over the past year, BNED is down 10.4% and ULTA is down 1.2% - ULTA leads by 9.2 points.
  • ULTA has been more active in the news (6 items in the past 4 weeks vs 1 for BNED).
  • ULTA has more recent analyst coverage (25 ratings vs 2 for BNED).
PerformanceBNED-10.40%ULTA-1.22%
2025-06-09+0.00%2026-06-08
MetricBNEDULTA
Company
Barnes & Noble Education Inc
Ulta Beauty Inc.
Price
$10.68+3.24%
$462.76-0.94%
Market cap
$366.6M
$19.90B
1M return
-0.37%
-12.11%
1Y return
-10.40%
-1.22%
Industry
Other Specialty Stores
Other Specialty Stores
Exchange
NYSE
NASDAQ
IPO
2015
2007
News (4w)
1
6
Recent ratings
2
25
BNED

Barnes & Noble Education Inc

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. operates bookstores for college and university campuses, and K-12 institutions in the United States. It operates in three segments: Retail, Wholesale, and Digital Student Solutions. The company sells and rents new and used print textbooks, digital textbooks, and publisher hosted digital courseware through physical and virtual bookstores, as well as directly to students through Textbooks.com. It also offers First Day and First Day Complete access programs; BNC OER+, a turnkey solution for colleges and universities, that offers digital content, such as videos, activities, and auto-graded practice assessments; and general merchandise, including collegiate and athletic apparel, school spirit products, lifestyle products, technology products, supplies, and convenience items. In addition, the company sells hardware and a software suite of applications that provides inventory management and point-of-sale solutions; direct-to-student subscription-based writing services; and bartleby, a direct-to-student subscription-based offering that includes textbook solutions, expert questions and answers, AI-based writing assistance, and tutoring services. As of June 29, 2021, it operated 769 physical college and university bookstores; and 648 virtual bookstores. The company also operates 148 True Spirit e-commerce websites; pop-up retail locations; and 77 customized cafés and 12 stand-alone convenience stores. Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.

ULTA

Ulta Beauty Inc.

Ulta Beauty, Inc. operates as a retailer of beauty products in the United States. The company's stores offer cosmetics, fragrances, skincare and haircare products, bath and body products, and salon styling tools; professional hair products; salon services, including hair, skin, makeup, and brow services; and others, including nail products and accessories. It also provides its private label products, such as the Ulta Beauty Collection branded cosmetics, skincare, and bath products, as well as Ulta Beauty branded products; and the Ulta Beauty branded gifts. As of January 30, 2021, the company operated 1,264 retail stores across 50 states. It also distributes its products through its Website, ulta.com; and mobile applications. The company was formerly known as Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc. and changed its name to Ulta Beauty, Inc. in January 2017. Ulta Beauty, Inc. was founded in 1990 and is based in Bolingbrook, Illinois.

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