Savvy Advisors Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST)

Savvy Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) by 19.0% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 4,100 shares of the retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 656 shares during the quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $3,878,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Peninsula Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Peninsula Wealth LLC now owns 818 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $749,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares during the period. Bosun Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Costco Wholesale by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Bosun Asset Management LLC now owns 636 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $583,000 after buying an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. Corps Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Costco Wholesale by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Corps Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,547 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,463,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. NFP Retirement Inc. increased its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. NFP Retirement Inc. now owns 980 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $898,000 after buying an additional 11 shares during the period. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC raised its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 3,437 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,163,000 after acquiring an additional 11 shares during the last quarter. 68.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on COST. Stifel Nicolaus set a $1,035.00 target price on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Loop Capital reduced their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,115.00 to $1,110.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Mizuho assumed coverage on Costco Wholesale in a report on Friday, April 11th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $975.00 price objective for the company. Telsey Advisory Group reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $1,100.00 price target on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research report on Monday. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Costco Wholesale from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Costco Wholesale presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,040.81.

Costco Wholesale Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of Costco Wholesale stock opened at $977.45 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $433.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.44, a P/E/G ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 0.96. Costco Wholesale Corporation has a 52-week low of $820.45 and a 52-week high of $1,078.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 1.02. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $979.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $984.62.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The retailer reported $4.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $63.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $62.93 billion. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.92% and a return on equity of 30.48%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.78 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Costco Wholesale Corporation will post 18.03 EPS for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 1st will be paid a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 1st. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.50%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Yoram Rubanenko sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $974.96, for a total transaction of $3,899,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 5,774 shares in the company, valued at $5,629,419.04. The trade was a 40.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Susan L. Decker sold 547 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $980.00, for a total value of $536,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 11,531 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,300,380. The trade was a 4.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 9,547 shares of company stock worth $9,472,510 in the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.