Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) Trading 0.1% Higher

Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) shares traded up 0.1% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $734.70 and last traded at $731.85. 262,300 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 88% from the average session volume of 2,163,285 shares. The stock had previously closed at $730.96.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on COST. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $585.00 to $630.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Costco Wholesale from $665.00 to $749.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Northcoast Research cut shares of Costco Wholesale from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $620.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, December 20th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $760.00 to $805.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Costco Wholesale from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $668.50.

Costco Wholesale Trading Up 0.2 %

The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $324.68 billion, a PE ratio of 47.88, a PEG ratio of 5.07 and a beta of 0.77. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $723.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $641.98.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The retailer reported $3.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.62 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $58.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $59.11 billion. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 28.80% and a net margin of 2.73%. Costco Wholesale’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.30 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 2nd were issued a dividend of $1.02 per share. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 1st. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.68%.

Insider Transactions at Costco Wholesale

In other news, EVP Caton Frates sold 740 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $683.50, for a total value of $505,790.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 6,721 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,593,803.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Costco Wholesale news, VP Yoram Rubanenko sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $680.33, for a total transaction of $1,700,825.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 5,910 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,020,750.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Caton Frates sold 740 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $683.50, for a total value of $505,790.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 6,721 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,593,803.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 15,582 shares of company stock valued at $10,736,778 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. United Bank grew its position in Costco Wholesale by 9.2% in the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 5,254 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,026,000 after acquiring an additional 444 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Costco Wholesale by 33.6% in the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 383,691 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $220,948,000 after buying an additional 96,566 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd increased its stake in Costco Wholesale by 87.1% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 232 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $134,000 after buying an additional 108 shares during the period. Bridgefront Capital LLC bought a new stake in Costco Wholesale during the 1st quarter valued at about $333,000. Finally, Next Century Growth Investors LLC boosted its position in Costco Wholesale by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Next Century Growth Investors LLC now owns 3,414 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,965,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

About Costco Wholesale

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.