Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) Trading Down 0.5%

Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) traded down 0.5% on Monday . The company traded as low as $843.68 and last traded at $845.47. 315,989 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 1,958,793 shares. The stock had previously closed at $849.99.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

COST has been the subject of a number of research reports. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $815.00 to $873.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 31st. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $860.00 to $890.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 20th. Gordon Haskett cut shares of Costco Wholesale from a “buy” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $775.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. StockNews.com raised shares of Costco Wholesale from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, June 2nd. Finally, Loop Capital boosted their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $890.00 to $940.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $758.70.

Costco Wholesale Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $380.98 billion, a PE ratio of 53.24, a PEG ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 0.78. The business’s 50-day moving average is $804.55 and its 200-day moving average is $742.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.94.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 30th. The retailer reported $3.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.70 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $58.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.16 billion. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.83% and a return on equity of 30.02%. Costco Wholesale’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.43 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 10th. Investors of record on Friday, April 26th were given a dividend of $1.16 per share. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.54%. This is a positive change from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 25th. Costco Wholesale’s payout ratio is 28.75%.

Insider Activity at Costco Wholesale

In related news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of the business’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 transaction of $567,445.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 10,000 shares in the company, valued at $7,228,600. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Costco Wholesale

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.0% in the third quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 28,855 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $16,302,000 after buying an additional 273 shares in the last quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 1,763 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,164,000 after buying an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake in Costco Wholesale by 28.9% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 272,288 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $179,822,000 after purchasing an additional 61,122 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC raised its stake in Costco Wholesale by 15.6% during the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 21,514 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $14,201,000 after purchasing an additional 2,909 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zhang Financial LLC raised its stake in Costco Wholesale by 3.8% during the first quarter. Zhang Financial LLC now owns 1,010 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $740,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

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.