Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Has $23.77 Million Position in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 25,937 shares of the retailer’s stock after purchasing an additional 93 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $23,765,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Costco Wholesale during the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Costco Wholesale during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. NewSquare Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 250.0% during the 4th quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 35 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in shares of Costco Wholesale during the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Collier Financial bought a new position in shares of Costco Wholesale during the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on COST shares. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,000.00 to $1,075.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Roth Mkm raised their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $755.00 to $907.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,075.00 to $1,175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $1,075.00 target price (up previously from $980.00) on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $1,100.00 target price on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,030.43.

Costco Wholesale Price Performance

Shares of Costco Wholesale stock opened at $934.41 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.98. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $989.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $944.28. Costco Wholesale Co. has a twelve month low of $697.27 and a twelve month high of $1,078.24. The firm has a market cap of $414.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.15 and a beta of 0.82.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 6th. The retailer reported $4.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.09 by ($0.07). Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.93% and a return on equity of 32.31%. The business had revenue of $63.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $63.02 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 18.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th were given a $1.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.09%.

Costco Wholesale Profile

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.