Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) Shares Up 0.5% After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) were up 0.5% on Tuesday after Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on the stock from $850.00 to $900.00. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock. Costco Wholesale traded as high as $850.00 and last traded at $849.76. Approximately 216,710 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 89% from the average daily volume of 1,958,245 shares. The stock had previously closed at $845.67.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on COST. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $777.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Barclays lifted their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $700.00 to $765.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Tigress Financial raised their price target on Costco Wholesale from $870.00 to $975.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $860.00 to $890.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 20th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $815.00 to $873.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $758.70.

Insider Buying and Selling at Costco Wholesale

In other news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $722.86, for a total transaction of $567,445.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,228,600. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bedel Financial Consulting Inc. lifted its position in Costco Wholesale by 1.3% during the first quarter. Bedel Financial Consulting Inc. now owns 995 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $729,000 after buying an additional 13 shares during the period. Arlington Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.1% in the first quarter. Arlington Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,295 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $949,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Enterprise Financial Services Corp increased its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Enterprise Financial Services Corp now owns 892 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $589,000 after buying an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Hoxton Planning & Management LLC increased its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Hoxton Planning & Management LLC now owns 1,535 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,125,000 after buying an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. lifted its stake in Costco Wholesale by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 4,472 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,276,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Costco Wholesale Stock Up 0.5 %

The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $801.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $740.64. The firm has a market cap of $376.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.65, a PEG ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 30th. The retailer reported $3.78 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.70 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $58.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.16 billion. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 30.02% and a net margin of 2.83%. Costco Wholesale’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.43 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 26th were given a dividend of $1.16 per share. This is an increase from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 25th. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.55%. Costco Wholesale’s payout ratio is presently 28.75%.

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.