Aviance Capital Partners LLC Grows Position in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Aviance Capital Partners LLC increased its position in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 146.7% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,632 shares of the retailer’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,160 shares during the period. Aviance Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $2,661,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Richelieu Gestion SA purchased a new position in shares of Costco Wholesale in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Costco Wholesale in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 200.0% during the 4th quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 45 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Costco Wholesale during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, Vima LLC purchased a new stake in Costco Wholesale in the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. 68.48% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Loop Capital boosted their target price on Costco Wholesale from $890.00 to $940.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Argus boosted their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $805.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 28th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $750.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Telsey Advisory Group boosted their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $850.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Costco Wholesale from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, June 2nd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $756.85.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 10,000 shares in the company, valued at $7,228,600. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Costco Wholesale Stock Performance

Shares of COST opened at $845.67 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $374.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.40, a P/E/G ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 0.78. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $801.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $740.64. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 12 month low of $524.63 and a 12 month high of $873.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 30th. The retailer reported $3.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.70 by $0.08. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 30.02% and a net margin of 2.83%. The company had revenue of $58.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.16 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.43 earnings per share. Costco Wholesale’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 26th were paid a $1.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 25th. This is a positive change from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.55%. Costco Wholesale’s payout ratio is currently 28.75%.

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.