Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) Price Target Increased to $645.00 by Analysts at Raymond James

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST – Get Rating) had its price objective increased by equities research analysts at Raymond James from $565.00 to $645.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the retailer’s stock. Raymond James’ price target suggests a potential upside of 10.80% from the company’s previous close.

COST has been the subject of a number of other reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Costco Wholesale from $491.00 to $527.00 in a report on Thursday, April 7th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 5th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Thursday, March 31st. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $620.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Costco Wholesale from $561.00 to $627.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 7th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $576.43.

Costco Wholesale stock opened at $582.12 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $546.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $525.20. Costco Wholesale has a 12-month low of $365.29 and a 12-month high of $612.27. The stock has a market cap of $258.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.91, a PEG ratio of 4.99 and a beta of 0.68.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 3rd. The retailer reported $2.92 EPS for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $2.74 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $51.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $51.51 billion. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.62% and a return on equity of 30.10%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.14 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale will post 13.01 EPS for the current year.

In other news, EVP Claudine Adamo sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $602.03, for a total value of $301,015.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,939 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,983,576.17. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Roland Michael Vachris sold 3,318 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $492.45, for a total value of $1,633,949.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 12,566 shares of company stock valued at $7,051,086. Insiders own 0.22% of the company’s stock.

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.5% during the second quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 6,185,105 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $2,447,261,000 after buying an additional 91,694 shares during the last quarter. Atticus Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Atticus Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,101 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $944,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 100.0% in the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 69,792 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $31,708,000 after purchasing an additional 34,896 shares during the period. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Costco Wholesale during the third quarter worth approximately $229,000. Finally, Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 5.6% during the third quarter. Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. now owns 2,087 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $938,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.74% of the company’s stock.

About Costco Wholesale (Get Rating)

Costco Wholesale Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the operation of membership warehouses in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Australia, Spain, France, Iceland, China, and Taiwan. It offers branded and private-label products in a range of merchandise categories.

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