Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) Shares Sold by Wealth Advisors Northwest LLC

Wealth Advisors Northwest LLC cut its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 3.5% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 494 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 18 shares during the quarter. Wealth Advisors Northwest LLC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $468,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Stanich Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Costco Wholesale in the fourth quarter worth $214,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,739,175 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $8,901,249,000 after purchasing an additional 252,118 shares during the period. RW Investment Management LLC raised its position in Costco Wholesale by 21.3% in the 4th quarter. RW Investment Management LLC now owns 5,624 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $5,153,000 after purchasing an additional 989 shares in the last quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management now owns 10,536 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $9,654,000 after buying an additional 270 shares during the period. Finally, Marks Group Wealth Management Inc grew its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 31.2% during the fourth quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc now owns 1,002 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $918,000 after buying an additional 238 shares in the last quarter. 68.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Patrick J. Callans sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,002.77, for a total transaction of $3,008,310.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 58,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $58,705,164.11. This represents a 4.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Claudine Adamo sold 900 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $922.56, for a total transaction of $830,304.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 6,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,445,926.72. This represents a 11.41% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 11,000 shares of company stock valued at $10,825,205 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus set a $1,035.00 target price on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,150.00 to $1,225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $1,100.00 price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Cfra Research upgraded Costco Wholesale from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $995.00 to $1,042.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Costco Wholesale presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,035.32.

Costco Wholesale Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of COST stock opened at $1,002.71 on Friday. Costco Wholesale Co. has a twelve month low of $793.00 and a twelve month high of $1,078.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The business’s 50 day moving average is $998.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $980.70. The company has a market capitalization of $444.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.15 and a beta of 1.00.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 29th. The retailer reported $4.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.04. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.93% and a return on equity of 32.31%. The company had revenue of $63.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $62.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.78 EPS. Costco Wholesale’s revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 18.03 EPS for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 16th. Investors of record on Friday, May 2nd were issued a dividend of $1.30 per share. This is a boost from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.16. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 2nd. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.50%.

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.