Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) Shares Up 0.4%

Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)’s share price shot up 0.4% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $722.50 and last traded at $721.04. 330,074 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 2,096,248 shares. The stock had previously closed at $718.28.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on COST. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Costco Wholesale from $610.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $680.00 target price on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Costco Wholesale from $760.00 to $805.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Telsey Advisory Group reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $800.00 price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Northcoast Research downgraded Costco Wholesale from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $620.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, December 20th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Costco Wholesale currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $691.28.

Costco Wholesale Stock Down 0.1 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market cap of $317.19 billion, a PE ratio of 46.78, a P/E/G ratio of 4.77 and a beta of 0.77. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $730.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $659.23.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The retailer reported $3.71 earnings per share 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $59.11 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.30 earnings per share. Costco Wholesale’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 26th will be paid a $1.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 25th. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.65%. This is an increase from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. Costco Wholesale’s payout ratio is 26.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Costco Wholesale

In other Costco Wholesale news, Director W Craig Jelinek sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $685.93, for a total value of $5,487,440.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 216,212 shares in the company, valued at $148,306,297.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Costco Wholesale news, Director Susan L. Decker sold 1,442 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $723.48, for a total value of $1,043,258.16. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 12,395 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,967,534.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director W Craig Jelinek sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $685.93, for a total value of $5,487,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 216,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,306,297.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,942 shares of company stock worth $7,602,943 over the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Costco Wholesale

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in COST. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 118,320.2% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,396,524 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $3,376,513,000 after buying an additional 7,390,278 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Costco Wholesale during the 4th quarter worth about $3,628,694,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 61,693.5% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,105,124 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $2,049,630,000 after purchasing an additional 3,100,099 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 18.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,634,627 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $3,941,708,000 after purchasing an additional 1,315,174 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 172.6% during the 2nd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,357,548 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $730,877,000 after purchasing an additional 859,599 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

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.