Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) Stake Trimmed by Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC

Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 1.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 204,581 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 3,693 shares during the quarter. Costco Wholesale accounts for about 3.6% of Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $187,451,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. HUB Investment Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. HUB Investment Partners LLC now owns 8,311 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $7,615,000 after buying an additional 232 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. raised its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 60,410 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $55,351,000 after buying an additional 1,079 shares during the last quarter. BluePointe Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 57.4% during the fourth quarter. BluePointe Capital Management LLC now owns 521 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $477,000 after buying an additional 190 shares during the last quarter. Symmetry Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 194.6% during the fourth quarter. Symmetry Partners LLC now owns 1,090 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $999,000 after buying an additional 720 shares during the last quarter. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 48,246 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $44,206,000 after buying an additional 2,763 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Roland Michael Vachris sold 3,600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $931.00, for a total transaction of $3,351,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 41,077 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,242,687. The trade was a 8.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

COST has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $840.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $975.00 to $1,090.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Roth Mkm boosted their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $755.00 to $907.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $990.00 to $1,030.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,029.00.

Costco Wholesale Trading Down 1.0 %

COST stock opened at $895.40 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $397.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.15 and a beta of 0.82. Costco Wholesale Co. has a twelve month low of $697.27 and a twelve month high of $1,078.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $988.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $944.49.

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

Costco Wholesale Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were paid a dividend of $1.16 per share. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.09%.

Costco Wholesale Company 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.