Costco Wholesale Corporation $COST Shares Acquired by Evelyn Partners Investment Management Services Ltd

Evelyn Partners Investment Management Services Ltd boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) by 12,900.0% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,820 shares of the retailer’s stock after buying an additional 1,806 shares during the quarter. Evelyn Partners Investment Management Services Ltd’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $1,717,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bulwark Capital Corp acquired a new position in shares of Costco Wholesale in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA purchased a new stake in Costco Wholesale in the second quarter valued at $31,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC boosted its stake in Costco Wholesale by 900.0% in the first quarter. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC now owns 40 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Financial Connections Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 975.0% during the second quarter. Financial Connections Group Inc. now owns 43 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Frazier Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 72.0% during the second quarter. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC now owns 43 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. 68.48% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP William Richard Wilcox sold 2,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $930.13, for a total transaction of $2,232,312.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 2,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,860,260. This represents a 54.55% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tiffany Marie Barbre sold 1,239 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $934.62, for a total transaction of $1,157,994.18. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 5,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,817,966.10. This trade represents a 19.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 9,720 shares of company stock valued at $9,010,257. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Costco Wholesale Stock Performance

NASDAQ:COST opened at $899.01 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market cap of $398.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.54 and a beta of 0.98. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $927.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $963.13. Costco Wholesale Corporation has a 1-year low of $871.71 and a 1-year high of $1,078.23.

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

Costco Wholesale Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 31st were issued a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 31st. Costco Wholesale’s payout ratio is currently 28.56%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Hovde Group began coverage on Costco Wholesale in a research report on Tuesday. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $16.00 target price for the company. Argus increased their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $1,170.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Truist Financial cut their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,042.00 to $1,033.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Costco Wholesale from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Eighteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Costco Wholesale currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,025.07.

Costco Wholesale Company 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.