FDx Advisors Inc. Sells 878 Shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

FDx Advisors Inc. lessened its holdings in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 59.0% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 610 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 878 shares during the quarter. FDx Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $447,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of COST. Norges Bank bought a new position in Costco Wholesale in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,628,694,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Costco Wholesale by 61,693.5% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,105,124 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,049,630,000 after acquiring an additional 3,100,099 shares during the last quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC bought a new position in Costco Wholesale in the first quarter valued at about $510,353,000. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado grew its position in Costco Wholesale by 3,647.1% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 567,641 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $374,688,000 after acquiring an additional 552,492 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Costco Wholesale by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 40,360,168 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $26,640,940,000 after acquiring an additional 485,051 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,228,600. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $676.00 price objective (up previously from $650.00) on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Argus upped their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $805.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 28th. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Costco Wholesale from $870.00 to $975.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $750.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on Costco Wholesale from $815.00 to $873.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $795.63.

Costco Wholesale Stock Performance

Shares of COST traded down $33.23 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $851.08. The stock had a trading volume of 3,492,609 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,966,312. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market cap of $377.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.73, a PEG ratio of 5.82 and a beta of 0.78. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 52 week low of $530.56 and a 52 week high of $896.67. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $825.62 and a 200-day moving average price of $751.69.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The retailer reported $3.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.70 by $0.08. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 30.02% and a net margin of 2.83%. The company had revenue of $58.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.43 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.98 EPS for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 9th. Investors of record on Friday, July 26th will be given a dividend of $1.16 per share. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.55%. Costco Wholesale’s payout ratio is 28.75%.

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.