Ulta Salon sees fourth quarter above Wall Street, shares rise

Jan 7 (Reuters) - Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc (ULTA.O) forecast fourth-quarter profit above estimates, helped by improved holiday sales, sending its shares up 9 percent to a new year-high.

Holiday same-store sales at the beauty retailer rose 7.9 percent.

The company said it saw a 9 percent rise in customer traffic leading to a better-than-expected performance for the holiday season.

Ulta Salon raised its fourth-quarter profit view to between 28 cents and 30 cents, from its previous outlook of 22 cents to 26 cents.

The company, which sees sales of $388 million to $392 million for the quarter, expects same-store sales to increase in a range of 4 percent to 5 percent.

Analysts on average were looking for a profit of 26 cents a share, before special items, on revenue of $374.8 million, for the fourth quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Ulta Salon shares were up 8 percent at $20.72 in morning trade Thursday 7 January on Nasdaq. They touched $20.87 earlier in the session. (Reporting by Vidya Lakshmi in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)