Kovack Advisors Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Kovack Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 11.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,401 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 730 shares during the quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $3,957,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Costco Wholesale by 1.0% in the third quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 28,855 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $16,302,000 after purchasing an additional 273 shares during the last quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC increased its stake in Costco Wholesale by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 1,763 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,164,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in Costco Wholesale by 28.9% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 272,288 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $179,822,000 after purchasing an additional 61,122 shares during the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its stake in Costco Wholesale by 15.6% in the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 21,514 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $14,201,000 after purchasing an additional 2,909 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strong Tower Advisory Services increased its stake in Costco Wholesale by 7.9% in the first quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services now owns 1,867 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,346,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares during the last quarter. 68.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on COST. Argus upped their target price on Costco Wholesale from $805.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 28th. Gordon Haskett lowered Costco Wholesale from a “buy” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $775.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $815.00 to $873.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 31st. Telsey Advisory Group raised their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $850.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 6th. Finally, DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $680.00 price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $758.70.

Costco Wholesale Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:COST traded up $3.30 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $862.66. 814,423 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,709,054. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 52-week low of $524.63 and a 52-week high of $873.96. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $807.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $743.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.94. The firm has a market cap of $382.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.45, a PEG ratio of 5.68 and a beta of 0.78.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 30th. The retailer reported $3.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.70 by $0.08. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 30.02% and a net margin of 2.83%. The firm had revenue of $58.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.16 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.43 EPS. Costco Wholesale’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.98 EPS for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 26th were paid a dividend of $1.16 per share. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 25th. This is a positive change from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Costco Wholesale

In other Costco Wholesale news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $722.86, for a total transaction of $567,445.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 10,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,228,600. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Costco Wholesale 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.