Costco Wholesale Corporation $COST Shares Sold by Heritage Investors Management Corp

Heritage Investors Management Corp decreased its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) by 2.2% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 22,895 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 509 shares during the period. Heritage Investors Management Corp’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $22,664,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Spinnaker Trust lifted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. Spinnaker Trust now owns 7,677 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $7,600,000 after buying an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 25.0% during the 2nd quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 5,126 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $5,074,000 after buying an additional 1,026 shares in the last quarter. Fortune 45 LLC lifted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 7.5% during the 2nd quarter. Fortune 45 LLC now owns 1,738 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,721,000 after buying an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. Grant Street Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 29.2% during the 2nd quarter. Grant Street Asset Management Inc. now owns 292 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $289,000 after buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 18.8% during the 2nd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 56,021 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $55,457,000 after buying an additional 8,873 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Costco Wholesale from $1,225.00 to $1,130.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. BTIG Research began coverage on Costco Wholesale in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $1,115.00 price objective on the stock. Roth Capital set a $907.00 price objective on Costco Wholesale and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $1,137.00 to $1,140.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Argus lifted their price target on Costco Wholesale from $1,170.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. Nineteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,068.15.

Costco Wholesale Stock Down 1.3%

Shares of COST opened at $912.42 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $404.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.61 and a beta of 0.98. Costco Wholesale Corporation has a 12-month low of $867.34 and a 12-month high of $1,078.23. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $941.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $971.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The retailer reported $5.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.81 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $86.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.01 billion. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.94% and a return on equity of 30.09%. Costco Wholesale’s revenue was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $5.15 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale Corporation will post 18.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 31st will be issued a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 31st. Costco Wholesale’s payout ratio is 28.56%.

Insider Activity at Costco Wholesale

In other Costco Wholesale news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 3,381 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $915.00, for a total value of $3,093,615.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 9,740 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,912,100. The trade was a 25.77% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Tiffany Marie Barbre sold 1,239 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $934.62, for a total value of $1,157,994.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,817,966.10. This represents a 19.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 7,920 shares of company stock valued at $7,373,175 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.