Costco Wholesale Corporation $COST Shares Purchased by Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC

Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) by 0.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,579 shares of the retailer’s stock after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the quarter. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $6,513,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in COST. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Costco Wholesale in the first quarter valued at approximately $3,461,159,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 418,980.3% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 2,359,422 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,335,686,000 after purchasing an additional 2,358,859 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 1.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 42,644,711 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $40,332,515,000 after purchasing an additional 443,101 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 84.0% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 812,188 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $768,114,000 after purchasing an additional 370,806 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 5.2% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,907,670 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,695,796,000 after purchasing an additional 191,985 shares in the last quarter. 68.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

COST has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Daiwa Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $1,005.00 to $947.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 30th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $1,042.00 to $1,033.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $1,160.00 to $1,050.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Telsey Advisory Group reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $1,100.00 price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Wednesday, September 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $1,130.00 price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Friday, September 26th. Nineteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,067.19.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Yoram Rubanenko sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $974.96, for a total value of $3,899,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 5,774 shares in the company, valued at $5,629,419.04. This trade represents a 40.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Teresa A. Jones sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $992.05, for a total value of $595,230.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 2,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,343,222.10. This represents a 20.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 7,981 shares of company stock worth $7,588,685 over the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Costco Wholesale Trading Down 0.2%

NASDAQ:COST opened at $915.38 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $953.54 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $972.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $405.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.27, a PEG ratio of 5.55 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 1.03. Costco Wholesale Corporation has a 1 year low of $867.34 and a 1 year high of $1,078.23.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The retailer reported $5.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.81 by $0.06. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 30.09% and a net margin of 2.94%.The firm had revenue of $86.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.01 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $5.15 earnings per share. Costco Wholesale’s revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Costco Wholesale Corporation will post 18.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 1st were given a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 1st. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 28.56%.

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.