OneAscent Financial Services LLC Purchases 2,139 Shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

OneAscent Financial Services LLC grew its position in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 164.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 3,437 shares of the retailer’s stock after buying an additional 2,139 shares during the quarter. OneAscent Financial Services LLC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $3,149,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp bought a new position in shares of Costco Wholesale during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $8,430,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Costco Wholesale by 15.0% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 7,662 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $7,020,000 after acquiring an additional 1,001 shares during the last quarter. Dale Q Rice Investment Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Costco Wholesale in the fourth quarter valued at $984,000. Stanich Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Costco Wholesale in the 4th quarter worth about $214,000. Finally, Everence Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 15.4% during the 4th quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. now owns 11,913 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $10,916,000 after purchasing an additional 1,590 shares during the period. 68.48% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Costco Wholesale news, EVP Claudine Adamo sold 900 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $922.56, for a total transaction of $830,304.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 6,987 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,445,926.72. This trade represents a 11.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Gary Millerchip sold 1,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $940.01, for a total value of $1,034,011.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,165 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,495,211.65. This trade represents a 8.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 5,600 shares of company stock valued at $5,215,915 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on COST. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Costco Wholesale from $1,075.00 to $1,175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $1,050.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Costco Wholesale from $950.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,065.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Roth Mkm raised their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $755.00 to $907.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. 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, Costco Wholesale presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,029.00.

Costco Wholesale Stock Performance

Shares of COST stock opened at $954.40 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The business has a fifty day moving average of $988.26 and a 200 day moving average of $947.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $423.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.15 and a beta of 0.82. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 1 year low of $697.27 and a 1 year high of $1,078.24.

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

Costco Wholesale Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were paid 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 dividend yield of 0.49%. Costco Wholesale’s payout ratio is currently 27.09%.

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.