Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) Stake Boosted by State of Alaska Department of Revenue

State of Alaska Department of Revenue raised its stake in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST – Get Rating) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 70,896 shares of the retailer’s stock after buying an additional 370 shares during the quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $32,363,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its stake in Costco Wholesale by 7.4% in the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 87,653 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $42,011,000 after buying an additional 6,049 shares during the last quarter. CFO4Life Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 56.8% during the third quarter. CFO4Life Group LLC now owns 759 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $358,000 after purchasing an additional 275 shares in the last quarter. RVW Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 9.2% during the third quarter. RVW Wealth LLC now owns 771 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $364,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. AMG National Trust Bank raised its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 14.9% during the third quarter. AMG National Trust Bank now owns 4,598 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,172,000 after purchasing an additional 595 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.4% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 95,954 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $45,316,000 after purchasing an additional 1,360 shares in the last quarter. 66.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $470.00 to $478.00 in a research note on Friday, January 6th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $600.00 to $575.00 in a research note on Friday, March 3rd. MKM Partners cut their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $512.00 to $484.00 in a research note on Friday, December 9th. Cowen lowered their target price on Costco Wholesale from $650.00 to $600.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 23rd. Finally, Tigress Financial lowered their target price on Costco Wholesale from $678.00 to $635.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 21st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $550.16.

Costco Wholesale Stock Down 0.0 %

NASDAQ:COST traded down $0.21 on Friday, hitting $487.05. 3,959,291 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,002,677. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 1 year low of $406.51 and a 1 year high of $612.27. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $492.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $491.96. The company has a market cap of $216.00 billion, a PE ratio of 35.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 0.79.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 2nd. The retailer reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.20 by $0.10. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 28.66% and a net margin of 2.58%. The company had revenue of $55.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $55.61 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.92 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 14.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.90 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 2nd. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.45%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP James C. Klauer sold 2,500 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $503.69, for a total transaction of $1,259,225.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 40,884 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,592,861.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, EVP James C. Klauer sold 2,500 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $503.69, for a total transaction of $1,259,225.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 40,884 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,592,861.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Richard A. Galanti sold 2,068 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $483.32, for a total value of $999,505.76. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 25,350 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,252,162. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 6,068 shares of company stock worth $2,992,156 in the last three months. 0.22% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Costco Wholesale Company Profile

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Costco Wholesale Corp. engages in the operation of membership warehouses through wholly owned subsidiaries. It operates through the following geographical segments: United States, Canada, and Other International Operations. The company was founded by James D. Sinegal and Jeffrey H. Brotman in 1983 and is headquartered in Issaquah, WA.