Investment Partners LTD. Grows Stock Position in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Investment Partners LTD. boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 1.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,023 shares of the retailer’s stock after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Investment Partners LTD.’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $1,482,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Costco Wholesale during the 4th quarter worth $3,628,694,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Costco Wholesale by 61,693.5% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,105,124 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,049,630,000 after buying an additional 3,100,099 shares during the last quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in Costco Wholesale in the first quarter valued at about $510,353,000. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado raised its stake in Costco Wholesale by 3,647.1% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 567,641 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $374,688,000 after buying an additional 552,492 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 40,360,168 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $26,640,940,000 after purchasing an additional 485,051 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $722.86, for a total transaction of $567,445.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,228,600. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on COST shares. Gordon Haskett cut Costco Wholesale from a “buy” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $775.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Citigroup raised their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $710.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $875.00 price objective (up from $800.00) on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $676.00 target price (up from $650.00) on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Friday, May 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on Costco Wholesale from $860.00 to $890.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 20th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $756.85.

Costco Wholesale Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of COST stock traded up $1.11 on Friday, hitting $851.73. The stock had a trading volume of 290,199 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,956,981. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $377.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.05, a P/E/G ratio of 5.67 and a beta of 0.79. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 1 year low of $524.63 and a 1 year high of $873.96. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $796.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $736.82.

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

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

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

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.