Trust Investment Advisors Has $259,000 Position in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Trust Investment Advisors trimmed its position in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 7.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 393 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 30 shares during the quarter. Trust Investment Advisors’ holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $259,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. United Bank grew its stake in Costco Wholesale by 9.2% in the first quarter. United Bank now owns 5,254 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,026,000 after acquiring an additional 444 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 33.6% during the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 383,691 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $220,948,000 after purchasing an additional 96,566 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd grew its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 87.1% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 232 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $134,000 after purchasing an additional 108 shares during the period. Bridgefront Capital LLC bought a new stake in Costco Wholesale during the 1st quarter worth approximately $333,000. Finally, Next Century Growth Investors LLC raised its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Next Century Growth Investors LLC now owns 3,414 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,965,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Claudine Adamo sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $714.83, for a total transaction of $1,072,245.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,695 shares in the company, valued at $4,785,786.85. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Costco Wholesale news, EVP Claudine Adamo sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $714.83, for a total transaction of $1,072,245.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,695 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,785,786.85. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director W Craig Jelinek sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $685.93, for a total value of $5,487,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 216,212 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,306,297.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 10,942 shares of company stock worth $7,602,943. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on COST. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $795.00 to $805.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Loop Capital lowered their target price on Costco Wholesale from $830.00 to $820.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Costco Wholesale from $760.00 to $805.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $665.00 to $749.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Gordon Haskett lowered Costco Wholesale from a “buy” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $775.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Costco Wholesale has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $691.28.

Costco Wholesale Trading Down 0.6 %

NASDAQ COST traded down $3.94 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $711.25. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,582,175 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,094,689. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 52 week low of $476.75 and a 52 week high of $787.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The stock has a market cap of $315.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.85, a P/E/G ratio of 4.77 and a beta of 0.77. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $730.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $659.23.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The retailer reported $3.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.62 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $58.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $59.11 billion. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.73% and a return on equity of 28.80%. Costco Wholesale’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.30 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Investors of record on Friday, April 26th will be issued a $1.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 25th. This is a boost from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.68%.

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.