Bell Investment Advisors Inc Has $138,000 Stock Position in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Bell Investment Advisors Inc grew its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 14.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 151 shares of the retailer’s stock after purchasing an additional 19 shares during the period. Bell Investment Advisors Inc’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $138,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. SLT Holdings LLC purchased a new stake in Costco Wholesale in the 4th quarter valued at about $461,000. Enterprise Financial Services Corp increased its stake in Costco Wholesale by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. Enterprise Financial Services Corp now owns 869 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $796,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC increased its stake in Costco Wholesale by 19.5% in the 4th quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC now owns 21,150 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $19,379,000 after buying an additional 3,445 shares during the last quarter. M. Kulyk & Associates LLC increased its stake in Costco Wholesale by 11.2% in the 4th quarter. M. Kulyk & Associates LLC now owns 259 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $237,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Miramar Capital LLC increased its stake in Costco Wholesale by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Miramar Capital LLC now owns 525 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $481,000 after buying an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

COST has been the subject of a number of research reports. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $935.00 to $995.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $840.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,000.00 to $1,075.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Telsey Advisory Group reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $1,100.00 target price on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,029.00.

Costco Wholesale Stock Performance

Costco Wholesale stock opened at $964.31 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $989.69 and its 200-day moving average price is $943.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.98. The stock has a market cap of $428.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.15 and a beta of 0.82. Costco Wholesale Co. has a fifty-two week low of $697.27 and a fifty-two week high of $1,078.24.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 6th. The retailer reported $4.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.09 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $63.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $63.02 billion. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.93% and a return on equity of 32.31%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 18.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 21st. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th were given a $1.16 dividend. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. Costco Wholesale’s payout ratio is presently 27.09%.

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.