Verdict: Side-by-side breakdown using the Bull Rankings model. LOW scored 54.1, ULTA scored 72.2 — ULTA leads.
Compare another set
LOW
Lowe's Companies, Inc.
Home Improvement Retail · Quality-Growth
54.1
$186.00 · $104.4B
fundamentals as of
Score gap
18.1
ULTA leads
ULTA
Ulta Beauty, Inc.
Specialty Retail · Quality-Growth
72.2
$570.37 · $24.4B
fundamentals as of
At a glance · who leads each dimension, on the model's own rules
CheapestLOW15.7x
Fastest growthULTA+11.2%
Highest qualityULTA85 / 100
Largest discount to fair valueLOW-8%
Side by side · every name on one set of axes
Growth against the P/E multiple. Up and to the right is cheaper and faster — the quality-growth idea in one picture. Points beyond the axis are pinned to the edge and marked off-scale rather than allowed to compress everything else.
The model, pillar by pillar (0–100 each)
LOW
stronger →← stronger
ULTA
77
Qualityreturns · margins · balance sheet
85
38
Growthrevenue & earnings expansion
78
54
Valuevaluation vs sector peers
57
ULTA is stronger on 3 of 3 pillars.
Fundamentals, head-to-head
LOW
ULTA
$7.0bB+
FCF
$1.1bC+
+3.1%C+
Rev
+11.2%B
Negative equity
D/E
0.95B
15.7xB+
P/E
20.8xC+
1.20B+
PEG
1.77C+
Winner per row is the stronger grade; where grades tie, the better figure breaks it. A true tie or a missing value shows no highlight.
Valuation · DCF cross-check
LOW
ULTA
8% below
Price vs fair valuelower is cheaper
6% above
~1%/yr
Growth the price impliesyr-1 FCF growth, fading to 4% · lower = less priced in
~9%/yr
+9%
1-yr DCF upside
-14%
+8%
5-yr DCF upside
-6%
+7%
10-yr DCF upside
+9%
The DCF is a cross-check on intrinsic value, separate from the quality-growth score above.
Model signals
LOW
ULTA
Why this score
Buying back stock
Durable high returns
The companies
LOWLowe's Companies, Inc.
Home Improvement Retail · $186.00 · beta 0.88
Why now
Home Improvement Retail · market cap $104.4b. Down 37% from 52-week high of $293.06 — deep drawdown territory. 33 sell-side analysts rate this a Buy with a mean 1-yr target of $249.39 (implying +34% upside).
Moat
FCF converts 106% of net income — earnings translate cleanly into cash. $104.4b market cap gives the company enough scale to absorb fixed costs that subscale competitors can't, without yet being so large that growth has to come from acquisition.
Risk
Down 37% from the 52-week high — the market is pricing in something the screen can't see; verify the bear case before sizing up.
ULTAUlta Beauty, Inc.
Specialty Retail · $570.37 · beta 0.84
Why now
Specialty Retail · market cap $24.4b. Down 20% from 52-week high of $714.97 — deep drawdown territory. Revenue growing +11%, comfortably above the S&P median. 25 sell-side analysts rate this a Buy with a mean 1-yr target of $631.44 (implying +11% upside).
Moat
ROE 46% — top-decile capital efficiency. Either pricing leverage, low capital intensity, or aggressive buybacks; the durability story depends on which.
Risk
Mature compounder — the risk is paying up for quality at a moment when growth is decelerating. Watch for sequential revenue + margin trends; the inflection from "compounder" to "ex-compounder" is hard to spot until the multiple already started compressing.
Verdict — model-derived comparison
Generating verdict… typically 5–10 seconds
Not investment advice. The Bull Rankings publishes a quantitative ranking model and accompanying analysis for general informational purposes only. Nothing on this page is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security; nothing is personalized to your circumstances, risk tolerance, or tax situation. Investing carries the risk of loss — invest at your own risk and consider consulting a licensed financial professional before acting on anything you read here. See terms and methodology for full disclosures.
Where LOW and ULTA diverge
On the headline score the gap is 18.1 points in favor of ULTA. The widest single difference is Growth, where ULTA leads by 39.9 points.
GrowthLOW 38.3 · ULTA 78.2ULTA +39.9
QualityLOW 76.7 · ULTA 84.5ULTA +7.8
ValueLOW 53.8 · ULTA 57.0ULTA +3.2
Pillars run 0–100. Value is judged against each company's own sector, so a Value score is a statement about a company relative to its own industry rather than to the other name here. A wide Value gap usually means the market already prices the difference in quality or growth — which is the trade-off this comparison comes down to.
Common questions
Is ULTA or LOW the better stock?
ULTA scores higher: ULTA 72.2, LOW 54.1 out of 100 on the Bull Rankings quality-growth score, which blends business quality, growth and valuation into one number. A higher score means a stronger business at a more reasonable price — it is not a price target or a recommendation.
Where do ULTA and LOW differ most?
The widest gap is growth, where ULTA leads by 40 points on the 0–100 pillar scale. ULTA leads all three pillars, so the gap is broad rather than a single-measure difference.
How are ULTA and LOW scored?
Each carries the same 0–100 quality-growth score used everywhere on the site, built from three pillars — quality (profitability and returns on capital), growth (revenue and earnings), and value (what you pay for them) — combined as a geometric mean, so a weak pillar cannot be papered over by a strong one.
How current is this comparison?
The whole universe is re-scored every trading day after the US market close, so the scores and fundamentals here reflect the latest published edition.