Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-four ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $691.28.

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $760.00 to $805.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. StockNews.com cut shares of Costco Wholesale from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $745.00 to $870.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 15th. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $680.00 price target on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $693.00 to $741.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 21st.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $722.86, for a total value of $567,445.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 10,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,228,600. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $722.86, for a total value of $567,445.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,228,600. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Susan L. Decker sold 1,442 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $723.48, for a total transaction of $1,043,258.16. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 12,395 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,967,534.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,727 shares of company stock worth $8,170,388 over the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Costco Wholesale

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of COST. United Bank raised its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 9.2% in the first quarter. United Bank now owns 5,254 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,026,000 after buying an additional 444 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 33.6% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 383,691 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $220,948,000 after buying an additional 96,566 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd increased its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 87.1% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 232 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $134,000 after acquiring an additional 108 shares during the period. Bridgefront Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Costco Wholesale during the first quarter worth about $333,000. Finally, Next Century Growth Investors LLC increased its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 0.9% during the first quarter. Next Century Growth Investors LLC now owns 3,414 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,965,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. 68.48% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Costco Wholesale Trading Down 0.6 %

NASDAQ COST opened at $711.25 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $315.44 billion, a PE ratio of 46.52, a P/E/G ratio of 4.77 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a fifty day moving average of $730.57 and a 200 day moving average of $659.59. Costco Wholesale has a 1 year low of $476.75 and a 1 year high of $787.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.43.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The retailer reported $3.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.62 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $58.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $59.11 billion. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.73% and a return on equity of 28.80%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.30 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale will post 15.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 26th will be paid a $1.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 25th. This is a boost from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.65%. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 30.35%.

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.