Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. Purchases 3,662 Shares of Costco Wholesale Corporation $COST

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. boosted its position in Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 55,944 shares of the retailer’s stock after buying an additional 3,662 shares during the period. Costco Wholesale makes up 0.6% of Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest holding. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $51,783,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.7% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,356,271 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $42,920,107,000 after buying an additional 711,560 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 18,325,416 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $18,141,062,000 after acquiring an additional 90,107 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,275,056 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $10,124,263,000 after acquiring an additional 150,844 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Costco Wholesale during the 2nd quarter valued at $5,692,035,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 9.8% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,291,557 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $4,248,384,000 after buying an additional 383,887 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Key Costco Wholesale News

Here are the key news stories impacting Costco Wholesale this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts raised targets and reiterated bullish ratings — Evercore ISI bumped its price target to $1,050 and kept an “outperform” call, and JPMorgan raised its target to $1,050 with an “overweight” rating; these lifts imply upside vs. the current price and may underpin investor interest. Evercore ISI price target raise The Fly
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional buying: RFG Advisory increased its stake in COST (small position increase disclosed), which signals continued fund-level confidence in the business. RFG Advisory buys Costco shares
• Positive Sentiment: Local development pipeline: city approvals moving forward for a new Costco at Seminole Towne Center, which supports long-term footprint expansion and sales growth. Sanford moves forward with Costco development
• Positive Sentiment: Dividend speculation: commentary on the possibility of another large special dividend can buoy investor demand (special dividends historically lift sentiment). Will Costco treat investors to another special dividend?
• Neutral Sentiment: Interest and coverage pieces (Zacks, Yahoo, Motley Fool) highlight Costco as a trending name and discuss January sales strength and upcoming Q2 results — these drive attention but don’t change fundamentals immediately. Zacks trending stock piece
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data in the feed is effectively zero/invalid and provides no meaningful bearish pressure (no actionable signal).
• Negative Sentiment: Consumer issues: reports that some gift cards sold at Costco are now worthless could hurt member trust and generate negative headlines. Some gift cards sold at Costco are now worthless
• Negative Sentiment: Recall and safety warnings: a nationwide recall update with warnings of “severe” reactions raises potential liability and PR risk; such stories can pressure the stock near-term until resolved. Costco recall update

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Javier Polit sold 2,049 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $867.21, for a total value of $1,776,913.29. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 10,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,320,773.08. This represents a 16.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Susan L. Decker sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $955.00, for a total value of $437,390.00. Following the sale, the director owned 8,532 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,148,060. This represents a 5.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 6,915 shares of company stock worth $6,317,097 over the last 90 days. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $1,155.00 price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Monday. HSBC lowered their target price on Costco Wholesale from $1,060.00 to $1,045.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Hovde Group initiated coverage on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $16.00 price target for the company. Raymond James Financial dropped their price target on Costco Wholesale from $1,070.00 to $1,000.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their target price on Costco Wholesale from $1,050.00 to $1,100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Twenty-two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Costco Wholesale has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,009.00.

Costco Wholesale Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:COST opened at $971.23 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $917.30 and a 200-day moving average price of $931.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.53. The company has a market capitalization of $431.10 billion, a PE ratio of 52.02, a PEG ratio of 5.26 and a beta of 1.01. Costco Wholesale Corporation has a 1-year low of $844.06 and a 1-year high of $1,078.23.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 11th. The retailer reported $4.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.27 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $67.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $67.03 billion. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.96% and a return on equity of 29.35%. Costco Wholesale’s revenue was up 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $4.04 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Costco Wholesale Corporation will post 18.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 13th. Investors of record on Friday, January 30th will be given a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 30th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.85%.

About Costco Wholesale

Costco Wholesale Corporation operates a global chain of membership-only warehouse clubs that sell a wide array of merchandise in bulk at discounted prices. The company’s product mix includes groceries, fresh and frozen food, household goods, electronics, apparel, and seasonal items, augmented by its prominent private-label brand, Kirkland Signature. Costco’s business model centers on annual membership fees and high-volume, low-margin sales, designed to drive repeat purchasing and strong customer loyalty among both consumers and small-business buyers.

Beyond merchandise, Costco provides a range of ancillary services that complement its warehouses, including gasoline stations, pharmacy and optical services, hearing aid centers, photo services, and travel and insurance products.