Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) Stock Price Up 0.5% After Analyst Upgrade

Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) traded up 0.5% on Tuesday after Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on the stock from $850.00 to $900.00. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock. Costco Wholesale traded as high as $850.00 and last traded at $849.76. 216,710 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 89% from the average session volume of 1,958,245 shares. The stock had previously closed at $845.67.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $750.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $777.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 31st. Gordon Haskett cut shares of Costco Wholesale from a “buy” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $775.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Telsey Advisory Group lifted their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $850.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 6th. Finally, Loop Capital boosted their target price on Costco Wholesale from $890.00 to $940.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 14th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Costco Wholesale presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $758.70.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $722.86, for a total value of $567,445.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,228,600. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Costco Wholesale

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 28,855 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $16,302,000 after acquiring an additional 273 shares during the last quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC boosted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 1,763 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,164,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC grew its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 28.9% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 272,288 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $179,822,000 after buying an additional 61,122 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC raised its position in Costco Wholesale by 15.6% in the 4th quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 21,514 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $14,201,000 after buying an additional 2,909 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zhang Financial LLC lifted its stake in Costco Wholesale by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. Zhang Financial LLC now owns 1,010 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $740,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Costco Wholesale Stock Up 0.5 %

The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $376.72 billion, a PE ratio of 52.65, a P/E/G ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 0.78. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $801.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $740.64.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The retailer reported $3.78 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.70 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $58.52 billion during 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%. Costco Wholesale’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.43 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 10th. Investors of record on Friday, April 26th were paid a $1.16 dividend. This is an increase from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 25th. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.55%. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.