Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas Lowers Stock Position in Costco Wholesale Corporation $COST

Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas lowered its position in shares of Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,397 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 123 shares during the period. Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas’ holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $4,353,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in COST. Bulwark Capital Corp purchased a new position in Costco Wholesale during the second quarter valued at $25,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC lifted its position in Costco Wholesale by 900.0% during the first quarter. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC now owns 40 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 36 shares during the period. eCIO Inc. purchased a new position in Costco Wholesale during the first quarter valued at $48,000. Aspect Partners LLC lifted its position in Costco Wholesale by 24.4% during the first quarter. Aspect Partners LLC now owns 56 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 11 shares during the period. Finally, Bank & Trust Co lifted its position in Costco Wholesale by 20.4% during the first quarter. Bank & Trust Co now owns 65 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 11 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on COST. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $1,333.00 to $1,418.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on Costco Wholesale from $1,060.00 to $1,025.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Citigroup reduced their price target on Costco Wholesale from $1,065.00 to $990.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Roth Capital set a $907.00 price target on Costco Wholesale and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Argus raised their price target on Costco Wholesale from $1,170.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Eighteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Costco Wholesale presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,072.00.

Insider Activity

In other Costco Wholesale news, EVP Yoram Rubanenko sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $974.96, for a total transaction of $3,899,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 5,774 shares in the company, valued at $5,629,419.04. The trade was a 40.92% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Teresa A. Jones sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $992.05, for a total value of $595,230.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 2,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,343,222.10. This represents a 20.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Costco Wholesale Price Performance

NASDAQ COST opened at $916.87 on Tuesday. Costco Wholesale Corporation has a one year low of $867.16 and a one year high of $1,078.23. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $955.08 and a 200 day moving average of $971.72. The company has a market capitalization of $406.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.35, a PEG ratio of 5.15 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 1.03.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The retailer reported $5.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.81 by $0.06. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 30.09% and a net margin of 2.94%.The company had revenue of $86.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.01 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $5.15 EPS. Costco Wholesale’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale Corporation will post 18.03 EPS for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 1st were issued a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 1st. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.56%.

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.