E&G Advisors LP Invests $206,000 in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

E&G Advisors LP bought a new position in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 312 shares of the retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in COST. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Costco Wholesale by 118,320.2% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,396,524 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $3,376,513,000 after acquiring an additional 7,390,278 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Costco Wholesale in the 4th quarter valued at $2,328,844,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 61,693.5% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,105,124 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,049,630,000 after purchasing an additional 3,100,099 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 18.0% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,634,627 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,941,708,000 after purchasing an additional 1,315,174 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 172.6% in the 2nd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,357,548 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $730,877,000 after purchasing an additional 859,599 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Costco Wholesale

In other Costco Wholesale news, EVP Claudine Adamo sold 1,500 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $714.83, for a total transaction of $1,072,245.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 6,695 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,785,786.85. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Costco Wholesale news, EVP Claudine Adamo sold 1,500 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $714.83, for a total transaction of $1,072,245.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 6,695 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,785,786.85. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Susan L. Decker sold 1,442 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $723.48, for a total value of $1,043,258.16. Following the transaction, the director now owns 12,395 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,967,534.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 14,182 shares of company stock worth $9,809,558. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

COST has been the topic of several recent research reports. Citigroup raised their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $585.00 to $630.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 15th. Telsey Advisory Group reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $800.00 price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $693.00 to $741.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 21st. Gordon Haskett downgraded Costco Wholesale from a “buy” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $775.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $612.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 15th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Costco Wholesale presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $673.36.

Costco Wholesale Stock Performance

Shares of Costco Wholesale stock opened at $711.81 on Tuesday. Costco Wholesale Co. has a one year low of $476.75 and a one year high of $787.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $315.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.55, a PEG ratio of 4.94 and a beta of 0.77. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $728.77 and a 200 day simple moving average of $651.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.43.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The retailer reported $3.71 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.62 by $0.09. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 28.80% and a net margin of 2.73%. The business had revenue of $58.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $59.11 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.30 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 2nd were paid a dividend of $1.02 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 1st. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.57%. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.68%.

Costco Wholesale Company Profile

Costco Wholesale Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the operation of membership warehouses in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Japan, the United Kingdom, Korea, Australia, Taiwan, China, Spain, France, Iceland, New Zealand, and Sweden. The company offers branded and private-label products in a range of merchandise categories.