Drake & Associates LLC Boosts Stake in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Drake & Associates LLC grew its stake in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 13.4% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,659 shares of the retailer’s stock after buying an additional 196 shares during the period. Costco Wholesale makes up 0.5% of Drake & Associates LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest position. Drake & Associates LLC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $1,471,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in COST. Perpetual Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 24.7% in the first quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 888 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $651,000 after buying an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. Grandview Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.3% during the first quarter. Grandview Asset Management LLC now owns 2,681 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,964,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 43.2% during the first quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 5,275 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $3,865,000 after purchasing an additional 1,592 shares during the last quarter. American National Bank raised its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 0.6% during the first quarter. American National Bank now owns 20,504 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $15,022,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Apella Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 8.5% during the first quarter. Apella Capital LLC now owns 2,623 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,885,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $955.00 to $980.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $925.00 to $975.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $855.00 to $950.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $925.00 to $935.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $985.00 to $990.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $890.07.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Costco Wholesale news, EVP Richard A. Galanti sold 500 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $863.88, for a total transaction of $431,940.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 23,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,560,344. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Costco Wholesale news, EVP Richard A. Galanti sold 500 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $863.88, for a total transaction of $431,940.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 23,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,560,344. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Pierre Riel sold 2,000 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $896.71, for a total transaction of $1,793,420.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 10,210 shares in the company, valued at $9,155,409.10. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,224 shares of company stock valued at $9,974,973 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Costco Wholesale Stock Performance

COST opened at $885.29 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $392.48 billion, a PE ratio of 54.85, a PEG ratio of 5.53 and a beta of 0.80. Costco Wholesale Co. has a twelve month low of $540.23 and a twelve month high of $923.83. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $888.57 and its 200 day moving average price is $831.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The retailer reported $5.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.05 by $0.10. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.90% and a return on equity of 31.05%. The firm had revenue of $79.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $79.91 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $4.86 earnings per share. Costco Wholesale’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 17.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.