Allworth Financial LP Purchases 5,342 Shares of Costco Wholesale Corporation $COST

Allworth Financial LP boosted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) by 10.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 58,748 shares of the retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,342 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $58,157,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Bulwark Capital Corp bought a new stake in Costco Wholesale during the second quarter valued at $25,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA purchased a new stake in shares of Costco Wholesale in the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC boosted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 900.0% during the 1st quarter. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC now owns 40 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Frazier Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 72.0% in 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 during the last quarter. 68.48% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on COST. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Costco Wholesale from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,050.00 to $1,025.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Roth Capital set a $907.00 price target on Costco Wholesale and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on Costco Wholesale from $1,065.00 to $990.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Nineteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Costco Wholesale presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,063.88.

Insider Activity

In other Costco Wholesale news, EVP Teresa A. Jones sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $992.05, for a total transaction of $595,230.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 2,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,343,222.10. This represents a 20.26% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Tiffany Marie Barbre sold 1,239 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $934.62, for a total value of $1,157,994.18. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 5,155 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,817,966.10. This represents a 19.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 7,920 shares of company stock valued at $7,373,175. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Costco Wholesale Price Performance

COST opened at $922.74 on Monday. 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 stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $938.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $968.65. The firm has a market cap of $408.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.67, a PEG ratio of 5.54 and a beta of 0.98. 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 quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The retailer reported $5.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.81 by $0.06. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 30.09% and a net margin of 2.94%.The firm had revenue of $86.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.01 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $5.15 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Costco Wholesale Corporation will post 18.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Dividend Announcement

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

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.