Crestwood Advisors Group LLC Trims Position in Costco Wholesale Corporation $COST

Crestwood Advisors Group LLC decreased its position in Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) by 1.9% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 75,100 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 1,470 shares during the period. Costco Wholesale comprises approximately 1.3% of Crestwood Advisors Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $74,344,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in COST. Bulwark Capital Corp purchased a new position in shares of Costco Wholesale in the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC raised its position in Costco Wholesale by 900.0% in the first quarter. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC now owns 40 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares during the period. Financial Connections Group Inc. raised its position in Costco Wholesale by 975.0% in the second quarter. Financial Connections Group Inc. now owns 43 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the period. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 72.0% during the 2nd quarter. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC now owns 43 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. Finally, eCIO Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Costco Wholesale during the 1st quarter valued at $48,000. 68.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on COST shares. Daiwa Capital Markets decreased their target price on Costco Wholesale from $1,005.00 to $947.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 30th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $1,000.00 price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Oppenheimer reduced their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,130.00 to $1,050.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group restated an “outperform” rating and set a $1,100.00 target price on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research note on Tuesday. Nineteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,064.85.

Costco Wholesale Stock Performance

NASDAQ:COST opened at $940.74 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $939.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $969.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $416.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.66, a P/E/G ratio of 5.54 and a beta of 0.98. Costco Wholesale Corporation has a 12-month low of $871.71 and a 12-month high of $1,078.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The retailer reported $5.87 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $86.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $5.15 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale Corporation will post 18.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 31st will be paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 31st. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.56%.

Insider Activity at Costco Wholesale

In other news, EVP Claudine Adamo sold 2,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $935.68, for a total transaction of $2,526,336.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 6,851 shares in the company, valued at $6,410,343.68. This trade represents a 28.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Teresa A. Jones sold 600 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $992.05, for a total value of $595,230.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 2,362 shares in the company, valued at $2,343,222.10. This trade represents a 20.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 7,920 shares of company stock valued at $7,373,175. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.