Shares of cosmetics retail chain Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ: ULTA) are down more than 30% from all-time highs. But this is not a business in decline at all. And it's quite easy to prove.

Ulta Beauty had zero long-term debt as of February 2024. As investing great Peter Lynch used to say, "It's very hard to go bankrupt when you don't have any debt." To this I'll add that it's even harder to go bankrupt when a company is also profitable. And Ulta is very profitable with an operating-profit margin of 15% in its fiscal 2023.

To reiterate, the stock is down. But there is a reason it's down: At a recent investor conference, management said that fiscal 2024 started below its expectations. Consequently, it believes that it will deliver numbers at the low end of its financial guidance.

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Source Fool.com