As shoppers increasingly treat beauty, health and wellness as one budget, Walmart is moving beauty to high-traffic areas and using pharmacists and trained staff; Ulta has added wellness boutiques, while Target rolled out roughly 600 Beauty Studio counters.
Ulta’s second-quarter net sales rose 8.9% to roughly $3 billion, and it raised its annual sales and profit forecasts. Industry unit demand remained positive in the first half of 2026, while skincare revenue grew 8%, according to the article.
Walmart’s comparable-sales growth slowed to 2.6%, while traffic rose 1.5%; the article says it must prove its beauty investments generate profitable incremental sales. Insider Monkey’s database counted 111 hedge funds holding Walmart in Q2 2026, up from 99 in Q1, while Ulta’s count fell to 51 from 56. Reported position values rose to $11.12 billion for Walmart from $10.94 billion and fell to $990.9 million for Ulta from $1.24 billion.
