Earnings Labs

Ulta Beauty, Inc. (ULTA)

Q2 2019 Earnings Call· Thu, Aug 29, 2019

$536.19

-0.64%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Ulta Beauty Second Quarter 2019 Earnings Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce you to your host, Ms. Kiley Rawlins, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please proceed.

Kiley Rawlins

Analyst

Thanks, Ben. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for Ulta Beauty's second quarter earnings conference call. Hosting today's call are Mary Dillon, Chief Executive Officer; and Scott Settersten, Chief Financial Officer. Dave Kimbell, President and Chief Merchandising and Marketing Officer, is also with us today. This afternoon, we released our financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2019. A copy of the press release is available in the Investor Relations section of our website at www.ulta.com. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you of the company's safe harbor language. The statements contained in this conference call, which are not historical facts, may be deemed to constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual future results may differ materially from those projected in such statements due to a number of risks and uncertainties, all of which are described in the company's filings with the SEC. We caution you not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of today, August 29, 2019. We have no obligation to update or revise our forward-looking statements, except as required by law, and you should not expect us to do so. Please note that in our comments today, we will reference non-GAAP earnings growth, adjusted for the impact of income tax benefits in the second quarter of 2019 and to the second quarter of fiscal 2018. We'll begin this morning with -- or this afternoon with prepared remarks from Mary and Scott. Following our prepared comments, we will open the call for questions. To allow us to accommodate as many of you as possible during the hour scheduled for this call, we ask that you ask one question only during the Q&A session. Now I'll turn the call over to Mary. Mary?

Mary Dillon

Analyst

Thank you, Kiley, and good afternoon, everyone. The Ulta Beauty team delivered another quarter of solid top line performance, gross margin expansion and double-digit earnings growth. To recap our financial performance for the quarter, total sales grew 12%; comp store sales increased 6.2% on top of 6.5% growth in the second quarter of last year; gross margin expanded by 40 basis points; and diluted earnings per share, excluding the tax benefits, increased 11.5%. Looking forward, however, we've adjusted our expectations for the second half of 2019 to reflect the headwinds and volatility we're currently seeing in the U.S. cosmetics market, and we'll share more with you how we're thinking about the current sales environment. But let me reiterate, our differentiated model is winning in the marketplace, and we continue to invest in building the long-term capabilities that will further expand our leadership position in the dynamic beauty industry. Year-to-date, we've continued to expand our market share across most categories, increased our brand awareness, delivered double-digit growth in active loyalty members, increased traffic and delivered double-digit growth in almost every key merchandise category. I will also add that our salon business is showing real comp strength as we're executing on our optimization strategies. That said, the cosmetics category at Ulta, which is roughly 50% of our business and one of our highest margin categories, has only delivered in the low single-digit growth year-to-date, well outperforming the market, but below our expectations. So let me explain more. Ulta Beauty continues to drive meaningful market share growth in makeup across mass and prestige, but it's clear that cosmetics in the overall U.S. market is challenged. After several years of very strong performance, growth in the makeup category has been decelerating over the last 2 years, but recently turned negative. Based on the latest…

Scott Settersten

Analyst

Thank you, Mary, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll start with the income statement. Sales growth of 12% was driven by a 6.2% comp and strong new store productivity. Increased traffic drove the majority of our comp for the quarter, with transaction growth of 5.4% and ticket growth of 0.8%. Although we no longer break out e-commerce growth specifically, I can share that ultra.com growth was towards the high end of our expectations of 20% to 30% growth, driven by traffic. Looking at trends through the quarter. We began to see more volatility in our sales trends in July and pulled a number of levers to drive traffic and deliver healthy top line growth. On the gross profit line, margin of 36.4% improved 40 basis points year-over-year from 36%, driven by leverage of rent and occupancy expense and stronger merchandise margin, partially offset by investments in our services business. Our supply chain operations were roughly flat as a percent of sales as leveraging our DC operations was offset by growth in e-commerce. To provide more color on our merchandise margin, we continued to benefit from efforts related to our efficiencies for growth, or EFG program. This goodness was offset by increased promotional activity to drive traffic as well as ongoing mix headwinds. SG&A rate of 23.6% deleveraged by 90 basis points compared to the prior year's rate of 22.7%, reflecting planned deleverage and corporate overhead related to investments in growth initiatives, including our efforts around digital innovation, including omnichannel and personalization, and our recently announced Canadian expansion. We also saw deleverage in store labor versus last year, primarily due to continued investments to support the guest experience. Operating margin of 12.5% of sales was down 50 basis points. Given our investment agenda, we had planned for operating margin deleverage for the…

Mary Dillon

Analyst

Thank you, Scott. Before we begin the Q&A session, I'd just like to take a step back to recap our perspective on the quarter, our current challenges and the strength of our differentiated business model. While the second quarter results were solid, as Scott said, we've updated our guidance to reflect our best assessment of second half performance based on our expectations for the U.S. makeup category. We are doing our level best to both set realistic short-term expectations and ensure that we work with our brand partners to stabilize and then grow the important color cosmetics category. I am confident we can do that. Our unique business model, representing all of the major categories of beauty, a range of price points and access to many exclusive and digitally native brands, is enabling us to drive growth and market share gains in spite of headwinds in our largest category. We've expanded our gross profit margin, increased our brand awareness, driven traffic growth, expanded our loyalty program and exceeded new store performance targets. We are relevant to a large and diverse set of beauty enthusiasts, and we're focused on attracting growing demographic groups like teens, millennials, Latinas who all over-index in beauty. We have a powerful and increasingly personalized loyalty program with strong guest engagement. We're also driving strong momentum in our salon business based on our actions to optimize the experience. And I'm proud that we have a team that continues to deliver operational excellence and exceptional guest experiences every day. That said, we are not immune to macro cycles like what we're currently seeing in the makeup category, but I am optimistic and committed to ensure that we'll move through these near term headwinds. And I believe we have the right strategy, the right business model and the right team to continue to grow and win over the long term. And now I'll turn it over to our conference call host to moderate the Q&A session.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Steph Wissink who's with Jefferies.

Stephanie Schiller Wissink

Analyst

Mary, I'll ask you this one first and I have a related question for Dave. So if you could help us think about the comp guidance for the back half, what component is category versus your relative outperformance to the category? So asked another way, how much of that is purely macro or backdrop? And do you expect to kind of retain share and follow the backdrop? Or do you expect to see some of that share advantage released? And my question for Dave is on the comments that you made on mass versus prestige. I think you indicated mass cosmetics up double digits, prestige up low single digits. Anything in your data that would suggest the consumer is trading down from prestige into mass?

Mary Dillon

Analyst

Hey, Steph, thank you. At the risk of reiterating, I will just say that I think your question's spot on. We're very confident that our business model is working, and it's going to continue to work. We are outperforming the rest of the market. We believe we're going to continue to do so because of the many assets that we have from a brand that's known and loved, our loyalty program, our omnichannel capabilities, digital capabilities, a lot of the exclusives that we have in our assortment. And the fact that we've got the ability to work across all categories really works for our advantage, right? Because we've had very strong growth at all the categories right now, except for makeup. But yes, the makeup category is challenged. We're winning. I'd say we've hit -- the category has hit a bit of a speed bump, and we're working with our brand partners, big and small, really to pivot this. And so to us, as we look at the second half, it's really about -- we've talked about this for several quarters, that after years of very strong growth -- cosmetics has been growing but at a somewhat slower rate than it had been. But really, I'd say trends deteriorated further late in the second quarter and even more recently into this quarter. And so we would say as we look at this, we figure, okay, it's going to stay for a while until get through this cycle. But I'm confident that our ability to drive share gains will continue. I don't see anything in our business model that makes me feel otherwise. And Dave, do you want to comment about the other question?

David Kimbell

Analyst

Right. On mass cosmetics, so as both Mary and Scott said, our mass business did perform somewhat better than our prestige business. In both categories, we gained share and we think we outperformed the total industry significantly, which allowed us to continue to grow our business. In the mass side of the business, we probably had a bit more advancement in shifting our assortment away from brands -- broad brands into brands that are a bit more limited and exclusive distribution at Ulta Beauty. So our business has been stronger, but we believe in what we see in the marketplace that the mass total U.S. makeup -- mass makeup category is equally as challenged relative to prestige. So we don't believe there's a shift between prestige and mass as much as an overall malaise driven by the innovation trends that Mary pointed out. We're confident that the innovation that we're bringing in both mass and prestige will allow us to continue to gain share, but the softness in the total cosmetic, both mass and prestige category, will provide these headwinds that we've described.

Operator

Operator

Next question comes from Erinn Murphy who's with Piper Jaffray.

Erinn Murphy

Analyst

I guess just to follow up to that question, as we think about the comp cadence of 4% to 6% now for the year, and you're 1 year into your Analyst Day, which was 5% to 7% long-term guide, I guess what gives you the confidence? Or do you believe that you should be reaccelerating to 5% to 7% beyond this year, I guess if the slowdown in cosmetics from what you can see just temporarily to the back of this year? And then I guess, Mary, you commented -- or I guess, Scott, both of you commented on a little bit more promotional activity in the back half of the quarter. What are you expecting for the holiday season from a promotional perspective?

Mary Dillon

Analyst

Okay. So I'd step back and say -- and I want to be really clear, we're really no less confident about the attractiveness of our business model, our growth potential. We do see the current dynamics as a speed bump. Certainly, it's a speedy speed bump up, right? But we're confident cosmetics category will return -- will continue to return to growth. The timing is a little unpredictable. But there's been in the past, cycles that affect different categories, and makeup was very strong for many years, and it's going through a tough cycle. But as we look at demographic trends, as we look at engagement in makeup, as we look at the white space that we believe exists, and I know our brand partners' commitment to getting this back to growth, we feel that we still stand by that guidance. I'd say we're not -- today, we're not talking about a long-term outlook. Now it's prudent for us to plan in the near term for this potentially lower growth environment, and we're thinking about that. But we have not changed our optimistic views of the future. On the promotional end, I mean holiday is always a promote -- a highly coveted time for everybody to get traffic into their stores. So Scott talked about promotion. I'd say, the good news is we have a lot of levers that we have, and we use those levers at different times. As everybody, I think, understands we've gone to much more targeted types of promotions over the years versus more broad-based. And with our loyalty program being kind of the core of what we do, it's going to be, I think, a competitive second half because everybody who's in beauty would be facing these same headwinds. So we feel we are well set up for holiday. Obviously, that's a key focus area for us. But we're going to continue to I guess, I'd say, drive traffic, make sure that we capture guests into our loyalty program and not cede that to competitors at a time that will be competitive. But at the same token, I think again we're pretty smart about how we use the levers, and we have more efficient levers than ever.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Steven Forbes who's with Guggenheim Securities.

Steven Forbes

Analyst

Mary, maybe a follow-up on that previous question, right, given that the comp revision is based really on the [ stool ] of a comp, right, versus the e-commerce growth, given you reiterated that -- the 20% to 30%. Can you discuss sort of the mature store comp outlook for the back half, and whether the recent performance impacts -- whether it's the saturation targets or unit growth outlook through 2021 that was provided during last year's Analyst Day?

Scott Settersten

Analyst

We're happy overall with new store performance. I think we mentioned that in our prepared remarks. So we haven't seen anything in there that would give us any concern on the longer-term target of 1,500 to 1,700 stores. The recent, over I would call, the rolling 12-month period, we saw new stores performing well in the low to mid-single digit kind of range, again, vis-à-vis what we saw high-single digits in the years where we were delivering double-digit comps. So they have moderated somewhat. As we looked at Q2 in absolute terms, the comps in the older cohorts were lower. They were in the low -- very low single-digit range, as you would expect when you do the math on the overall comp makeup. Again, when we look at cosmetics, color cosmetics overall, and what were -- the dynamics we're seeing in the industry, they effect all stores equally. There's nothing special that stands out with the new stores compared to some of the older stores in the fleet. So again, very happy overall, doesn't change our outlook on the long-term store build-out here in the U.S.

Mary Dillon

Analyst

And I think I would just add that I think you might have inferred in your question about did it affect channels differently, and I'd say no. Obviously, e-commerce is growing faster than stores. It has been for a while, but that channel is equally affected by the headwind.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Simeon Gutman who's with Morgan Stanley.

Simeon Gutman

Analyst

A little bit of a follow-up, right? You have this medium- to long-term outlook out there, mid- to high-teens EPS growth. Obviously, the operating deleverage in the back half would stand as a disconnect to that. I guess if you look at 2020, which I realize we're not talking about yet, is the deleverage that you could see, let's say if you do a 3% to 4% comp, is it going to look -- it could look similar to what we're seeing in the back half of this year? Or is there more flexibility on the margin side such that, that could get you back to your outlook? And just within that, I know you talked about the makeup market being soft and you need some time to cycle through it. What is your going assumption on this? Like, Mary, I don't know if there's conversations you're having with executives who sell this product as well, but when do you think this -- we cycle it in the market to get soft in the early part of last year, even though you were outperforming it. So do we cycle it beginning of the early part of 2020?

Mary Dillon

Analyst

Yes. Do you want me to start with that one, Simeon? Yes, I don't exactly have a crystal ball on this because there's a lot of moving parts in different brands that participate. I can tell you everybody is focused on this. North America, makeup market's important for everybody, and it needs to improve. I'd say it's going to take some time because part of the -- what we think is driving it is the innovation, while good and exciting innovation -- good innovation hasn't really driven incrementality. I mentioned this in the script, some previous forms of innovation that would be like, oh, I'm going to contour. I need 3 products for that, right? I'm going to do my brows now with 2 products. So what we're focused on is pivoting to white space that will drive incremental and exciting-type innovation, and that doesn't happen overnight. And frankly I'd say, it takes a while to assess incrementality. So it wasn't obvious probably until recently that some of that innovation, you have to go through a trial repeat cycle to see if they're going to be incremental. So categories pivot in certain ways. We're very focused on that with our brand partners. And I don't have exactly a time frame, but I think it's going to take some time to work through it. But I feel that by second half 2020, at least, we should be in a better place. But again, I'm not holding to that. I hope it's sooner, but I think it does take some time to cycle through.

Scott Settersten

Analyst

And those who know us well understand makeup, right? It's a huge part of our business and it's very high margin for us. So when there's disruption there, it creates a lot of ripple effects across the business. So we believe over the long term, there's still opportunity to expand operating margin, Simeon, through -- primarily through EFG initiatives that we've talked about before and the 4 work streams, along with scale over the long term. It's just, we think it's too early to reconsider modifying our long-term guidance outlook in any significant way here. We need a little time to let things shake out a little bit, and of course, we're looking to manage our investments and expenses and everything here really closely, and assuming -- we're thinking about this actively. Assuming we're going to be in a lower growth environment here in the near term and adjust our priorities accordingly.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Rupesh Parikh who's with Oppenheimer & Co.

Rupesh Parikh

Analyst

So first on the tariff side, we've seen some more mass companies talk about taking price. I was just curious just given some of the noise out there, I want to get your thoughts on what you thought the consumer acceptance of the price increases are. And then second, Scott, you mentioned that you expect Q3 comps to be lower than Q4. I would have expected potentially stronger comps in Q3 just given the easier compares in Q3 versus Q4. So just want to get your thoughts on that.

Scott Settersten

Analyst

Yes, so maybe we'll start with the tariff question. So again, at this point for us, we've talked about this over the last few quarters, it's kind of difficult to predict what the impact is going to be in beauty products overall. Again, we're not seeing any significant step up in pricing, negotiations or issues with any of our vendors. We expect to be able to manage our way through that and navigate that as best we can. And so yes, we're managing that as best we can through supplier relationships today, and we would expect to continue overall. As far as the comp stack year-over-year, I know we can look at 2 or 3 years in trends and what you would expect. That's not the environment we're in right now. I mean the disruption we're seeing in the prestige and color makeup overall is a step-change in the normal flow of the business year-to-year. And that's really what's driving our outlook.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Beth Kite who's with Citi.

Beth Kite

Analyst

We have a question about your skincare exposure. And given the pressure in color cosmetics, especially prestige, if you've considered a bigger move into skin, more brands, more shelf space, more space in-store, if you will? Have you entertained those conversations to shift the skincare exposure in a greater way, more quickly?

David Kimbell

Analyst

Yes. Well, we are already experiencing strong growth in skincare, both on the mass and prestige side of the business. And we've made moves to continue to emphasize that part of the business through both the brands that we've been bringing in and partnering with, with strong innovation that Mary described earlier, and further amplification within our -- both our store and our e-commerce and app business. So for sure, we've been emphasizing and driving that part of the business as well as the other categories that have been driving growth, hair and fragrance, our personal care appliances. So absolutely emphasizing that. Having said that -- and we are always on the move -- on the effort to continue to try to optimize our assortment and look to lean into areas that are demonstrating the most growth. Having said that, even though makeup is going through this tougher cycle, we still are confident in the long-term growth prospects of this category. So we're not anticipating a dramatic shift away long term from makeup. We'll continue to try to continue the strong share growth gains that we've had, bring new brands in, partner with our key brand partners to get those brands back on track because the demographic trends in makeup are still strong. Everything we're seeing around millennials and Gen Zs, Latinas, all the growth drivers, we're confident in. We're working through this innovation cycle that Mary has described, but we believe we'll come out of that. And so we'll continue to maintain a strong makeup business, but absolutely emphasizing the growth categories like skin and others across our store.

Beth Kite

Analyst

In the volatility in July through now, was that primarily color? Or did that impact your other categories?

David Kimbell

Analyst

Yes. It was primarily color that we're seeing this -- that as we've talked, there's been a disruption in the makeup category, a slowdown in the makeup category for a little while now. But in many measures and our tracking and view of the category, there was more disruption more recently over the last several weeks.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Christopher Horvers who's with JPMorgan.

Christopher Horvers

Analyst

So a couple of follow-ups. First, in terms of the comps that you're implying for the third quarter, are you basically assuming the current trend that you've seen sustained? Or are you expecting 21 Days Of Beauty in September to improve the trend? And following up on the fourth quarter, you're lapping James Charles, you're lapping Carli. So are you sizing the newness factor bigger this year? Or is there something else on the common terms of newness that hasn't been announced? Or are you assuming investment in merch margin to try to drive the comp overall?

Mary Dillon

Analyst

Yes, I'll start, and then I'll see if Dave wants to add anything. We're not going to get that granular in the quarter right now. Obviously, I'm just -- we're trying to do our best to sort of call it like we see it. And I'd say it is a combination of our view of category trends, and as we size newness and also all the things that we have in the fourth quarter just in terms of holiday promotion. So it's our best call right now with a range around that. Okay?

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Michael Binetti who's with Credit Suisse.

Michael Binetti

Analyst

I was wondering maybe if you could just give us a little more color on the magnitude of the issues in July and into August. The magnitude of the guidance cut is quite heavy, and it seems like it's based on a fairly short period in time. And obviously, you still have big thing -- you've described 2Q as less informative seasonally about the underlying trend in your business. You've still got big things like 21 Days Of Beauty, Mary. And the [indiscernible] was very clear all over the commentary. You expect cosmetics to improve. I'm just trying to figure out why cosmetics will improve. You said the incrementality hasn't worked. What's driving the comp improvement in 4Q versus third quarter based on those comments, especially [ while having ], obviously, the bigger compare?

Mary Dillon

Analyst

Yes. I mean I'd say the first part of your question is just that it has been the category data that we have access to sounds like more recent than what you would see has shown more recent deceleration, I guess. So that's sort of part of why the shift and more dramatic change. Again, we just try to call -- kind of we take multiple views of how we build up our volume forecast. And so our Q4 is a combination of all the things, thinking about category trends not necessarily dramatically improving, but thinking about what we have coming and giving our best shot at both Q3, Q4 cadence of promotional events and launches.

Michael Binetti

Analyst

So I guess to follow that, I think you started first calling out slowing prestige cosmetic trends in mid-2017. You've done a really nice job of gliding your business slower for almost 2 years now. I feel like -- I just want to ask you like what do you think is happening in the industry? I feel like I'm missing something on why was that change lower so suddenly here recently?

Mary Dillon

Analyst

Well, if I had the answer to that, I would have fixed it already. I mean honestly, I think it's a combination of factors. And you're right. I mean I'd say our business model, we're proud about the fact that we can flex across categories in order to drive market share growth and carry a lot of fantastic exclusive brands. But as we look at it, it's a combination, we think, of just innovation not really -- the cycle of innovation that we're in right now doesn't compare to what we've seen a few years ago. And it's easy to say that now. It's hard to know it prospectively that, that's going to be the case, right? So we think it's a combination of what are -- we bet on and what our brand partners have bet on just wasn't driving that kind of incrementality that we've seen in the past. So that's at the highest level, probably the biggest factor.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Mark Altschwager who's with Baird.

Mark Altschwager

Analyst

Could you walk us through just a little bit further the puts and takes on the updated EBIT margin guidance for the back half of the year? How much of the change in expectations is on merchandise margin versus greater fixed-cost deleverage? Just any help on the gross margin versus the SG&A cadence over the next couple of quarters would be great.

Scott Settersten

Analyst

Yes, I guess we can talk directionally for the back half of the year. I'm not going to -- we're not going to get into specifics quarter-by-quarter. We're trying to move away from that, Mark. I appreciate question. So look, I think we stated in our comments that we still -- merchandise margin, right, we still expect to expand that. So that's the good news. Our EFG efforts are working. We're making progress on that. Unfortunately, it's going to be masked a little bit by the downward pressure we have in prestige, right, and the mix overall of the business. So we're happy with margin expansion overall. Blended up for the back half of the year is what we expect to see. SG&A is heavier. I mean again, we pointed to these -- these are necessary long-term investments for the health of the business that we're not going to back away from right now with some knee-jerk reaction. So again, SG&A deleverage is going to be heavier in the second half of the year than what we expected. I guess I would say there, it's probably a little heavier weighted to third quarter than it is fourth quarter because fourth quarter, we're kind of shut down and we're all on all-hands-on-deck for holiday. So also, I would say third quarter maybe you're kind of at peak with fixed cost. While it's leveraging year-over-year, there's less of that in the third quarter because we're getting a fuller load of new store openings and things like that weighted towards the back half of the year this year. So that's probably about as much color as I want to give on specifically the quarters themselves.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Michael Goldsmith who's with UBS.

Michael Goldsmith

Analyst

What are you assuming about the company's level of market outperformance in the cosmetic category in the back of the year? And does that represent a change from what we've seen in the last couple of quarters? And given the market share gains achieved over the years, does that make it more difficult to pick up share in the category going forward?

Mary Dillon

Analyst

Yes, I'd say that we are expecting continued similar share gains for the rest of the year, is probably the easiest way to put it.

Michael Goldsmith

Analyst

And then going forward?

Mary Dillon

Analyst

I wouldn't comment on that yet today. But still -- we still see plenty of share for us to gain that is out there in other channels, that we've been successfully with our business model attracting new guests and share. So we see that playing out for a while.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Ike Boruchow who's with Wells Fargo.

Irwin Boruchow

Analyst

Mary, I understand there's a lot going on right now, and I do apologize to go back to Simeon's question. But less than a year ago, there was a multiyear plan that was laid out, and it did call for 5% to 7% comps, and it specifically called out for margin expansion in 2020. I understand that there's no crystal ball right now, but I guess what I'd ask is given what's taking -- or given it sounds like this is going to take some time to work through and looking at the comps and deleverage you're guiding to in the back half, should we consider that plan stale at this point?

Mary Dillon

Analyst

I think it's really too soon to say that. I mean part of what we need to do is sort of work through this cycle. We've not put our plan for 2020 together yet. We still feel very confident about the business model, and we can make choices about ceasing of what we spend in terms of investment. We've been pretty aggressive, this goes back for a lot of investments this year, that are multiyear, important long-term investments for us. And so as prudent planners, we would say, okay, if we want to plan for maybe a different comp cycle for part of the year, how do we then think about -- how do we stage the investments and deliver the appropriate return? So I think it is -- I mean I think Scott said it well. This is not a time to have a knee-jerk reaction about the long-term prospects of the business. I don't believe that. But we're also being prudent in how we think about how we do this kind of planning and stage investments.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Dana Telsey with Telsey Advisory Group.

Dana Telsey

Analyst · Telsey Advisory Group.

As you think about the go-forward, how do you think of what type of comps that you need to leverage expenses given the new trajectory of sales growth and category growth? And also, as you think about mass and prestige, has there been a difference in the cadence of mass and prestige in terms of how they're performing most recently?

Scott Settersten

Analyst · Telsey Advisory Group.

Yes. So the first part of the question I guess I would say to Mary's point she just made, the business has been very healthy for a long period of time. And we've been riding a wave, so to speak, on makeup, makeup in general, right, across both mass and prestige, which has allowed us the flexibility to be more aggressive on the investment front, right? So there was a time before that phenomena where [indiscernible] operated very effectively and very well, performed -- produced some really great financial results on much lower comps. So we're no stranger to operating in a tougher, lower-growth kind of environment, and that's just the kinds of things that we're pivoting towards right now. So again, we don't have all the answers as we sit here today, but you can bet that we're actively managing with that thought in mind.

David Kimbell

Analyst · Telsey Advisory Group.

And on your second question about mass and prestige, just to reiterate, we are seeing in the total U.S. market weakness, softness in both mass and prestige. At Ulta Beauty, specifically we are gaining share in both categories due to the strategies and the brands that we've brought in and the focus we've had in that category. But as I've mentioned earlier, mass has performed better than prestige in the recent quarters as that business has been a bit stronger for us.

Operator

Operator

This concludes time allocated for questions on today's call. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mary Dillon for any closing comments.

Mary Dillon

Analyst

Yes, I would just like to close by thanking our very hard-working more-than-44,000 associates for delivering another quarter of solid financial results and great guest experience every day. And we look forward to speaking with all of you again soon.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.