Investors reacted harshly to Ulta Beauty's (NASDAQ: ULTA) first-quarter update. Shares had been comfortably outpacing the market's rally through most of 2023 but are now in negative territory following that report. Wall Street wasn't thrilled to hear that competitive pricing pressures are likely to push operating profit a bit lower than originally expected this year.

That's not a thesis-busting issue for Ulta Beauty, though. And there are other factors that point to excellent returns for shareholders from here. Let's look at a few of the biggest reasons to like this growth stock following its recent pullback.

Ulta Beauty is still growing at a market-thumping rate, even though the selling environment has weakened in recent months. Comparable store sales were up 9.3% in Q1, on top of the prior-year period's 18.0% spike. There was no sign of a challenge around customer traffic, either. On the contrary, Ulta's 11.0% increase from transactions puts it in a league of its own among major national retailers and shows plenty of shopper loyalty.

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Source Fool.com