Costco Wholesale Corporation $COST Stake Cut by Cary Street Partners Financial LLC

Cary Street Partners Financial LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 22,977 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 1,282 shares during the quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $22,746,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Peterson Wealth Services lifted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Peterson Wealth Services now owns 13,616 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $13,479,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Fishman Jay A Ltd. MI raised its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 3.5% during the second quarter. Fishman Jay A Ltd. MI now owns 16,888 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $16,718,000 after buying an additional 575 shares in the last quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 2.0% during the second quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 15,799 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $15,640,000 after buying an additional 312 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.7% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,356,271 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $42,920,107,000 after buying an additional 711,560 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Independent Solutions Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Independent Solutions Wealth Management LLC now owns 20,638 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $20,430,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. 68.48% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup cut their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $1,065.00 to $990.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,042.00 to $1,033.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Finally, DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $1,000.00 target price on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research report on Thursday. Nineteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,023.41.

Costco Wholesale Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of COST stock opened at $894.68 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $396.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.07 and a beta of 1.00. Costco Wholesale Corporation has a 1 year low of $871.71 and a 1 year high of $1,078.23. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $919.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $955.24. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 2.94% and a return on equity of 30.09%. The company had revenue of $86.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.01 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $5.15 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Costco Wholesale Corporation will post 18.03 EPS for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 31st were given a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 31st. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.56%.

Insider Transactions at Costco Wholesale

In other Costco Wholesale news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 3,381 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owned 9,740 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,912,100. This represents a 25.77% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Claudine Adamo sold 2,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $935.68, for a total value of $2,526,336.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 6,851 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,410,343.68. This represents a 28.27% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 9,720 shares of company stock valued at $9,010,257. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Costco Wholesale 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.