Lansing Street Advisors Has $1.17 Million Stock Holdings in Costco Wholesale Corporation $COST

Lansing Street Advisors raised its stake in Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) by 116.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,186 shares of the retailer’s stock after buying an additional 638 shares during the quarter. Lansing Street Advisors’ holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $1,174,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Costco Wholesale by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 42,644,711 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $40,332,515,000 after buying an additional 443,101 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in Costco Wholesale by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 4,332,009 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $4,097,127,000 after buying an additional 18,045 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Costco Wholesale by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,907,670 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,695,796,000 after buying an additional 191,985 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Costco Wholesale in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $3,461,159,000. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,357,630 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $3,175,579,000 after purchasing an additional 125,441 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Yoram Rubanenko sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $974.96, for a total value of $3,899,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 5,774 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,629,419.04. This represents a 40.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 3,381 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $915.00, for a total transaction 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 approximately $8,912,100. This represents a 25.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 7,981 shares of company stock worth $7,588,685. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on COST. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,333.00 to $1,418.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Argus increased their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,170.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and set a $1,000.00 price target on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Daiwa Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,005.00 to $947.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $1,130.00 price target on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Nineteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,067.19.

Costco Wholesale Price Performance

Shares of Costco Wholesale stock opened at $914.80 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 0.55. Costco Wholesale Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $867.34 and a fifty-two week high of $1,078.23. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $952.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $971.37. The company has a market cap of $405.69 billion, a PE ratio of 50.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.55 and a beta of 0.98.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The retailer reported $5.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.81 by $0.06. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.94% and a return on equity of 30.09%. The firm had revenue of $86.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $5.15 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Costco Wholesale Corporation will post 18.03 EPS for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 1st were issued a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 1st. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio is 28.56%.

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.