Bray Capital Advisors Reduces Position in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Bray Capital Advisors lessened its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 1.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,674 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 177 shares during the period. Costco Wholesale accounts for approximately 1.8% of Bray Capital Advisors’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Bray Capital Advisors’ holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $7,088,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 200,761 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $113,415,000 after purchasing an additional 13,883 shares during the last quarter. Hall Private Wealth Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Hall Private Wealth Advisors now owns 16,589 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $9,372,000 after acquiring an additional 863 shares during the last quarter. Old North State Trust LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Old North State Trust LLC now owns 2,080 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,175,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 123,943 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $70,023,000 after acquiring an additional 5,036 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dana Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 12.9% in the 3rd quarter. Dana Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 8,154 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $4,607,000 after acquiring an additional 931 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on COST shares. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $680.00 price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $676.00 target price (up from $650.00) on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $815.00 to $873.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Gordon Haskett downgraded shares of Costco Wholesale from a “buy” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $775.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Costco Wholesale from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 2nd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Costco Wholesale presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $758.70.

Costco Wholesale Trading Up 2.7 %

COST stock traded up $23.01 on Friday, hitting $885.67. 2,620,714 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,559,025. Costco Wholesale Co. has a twelve month low of $524.63 and a twelve month high of $886.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The business’s fifty day moving average is $816.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $746.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $392.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.70 and a beta of 0.78.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The retailer reported $3.78 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.70 by $0.08. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.83% and a return on equity of 30.02%. The firm had revenue of $58.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.16 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.43 earnings per share. Costco Wholesale’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 10th. Investors of record on Friday, April 26th were given a dividend of $1.16 per share. This is a positive change from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 25th. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio is 28.75%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Costco Wholesale news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $722.86, for a total transaction of $567,445.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 10,000 shares in the company, valued at $7,228,600. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.18% of the stock is 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.