West Michigan Advisors LLC Purchases 22 Shares of Costco Wholesale Corporation $COST

West Michigan Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) by 6.5% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 359 shares of the retailer’s stock after buying an additional 22 shares during the period. West Michigan Advisors LLC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $355,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Costco Wholesale in the first quarter valued at about $3,461,159,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its stake in Costco Wholesale by 418,980.3% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 2,359,422 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,335,686,000 after acquiring an additional 2,358,859 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Costco Wholesale by 1.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 42,644,711 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $40,332,515,000 after acquiring an additional 443,101 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI grew its stake in Costco Wholesale by 84.0% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 812,188 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $768,114,000 after acquiring an additional 370,806 shares during the period. Finally, Valeo Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in Costco Wholesale by 2,369.5% in the second quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 323,288 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $320,036,000 after acquiring an additional 310,197 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on COST. Wolfe Research started coverage on Costco Wholesale in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $1,130.00 price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Daiwa Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $1,005.00 to $947.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $1,065.00 to $990.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $1,100.00 price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. Nineteen equities research 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 presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,068.15.

Costco Wholesale Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ COST opened at $932.14 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $945.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $971.67. Costco Wholesale Corporation has a 52 week low of $867.34 and a 52 week high of $1,078.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 1.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $413.11 billion, a PE ratio of 51.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.72 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 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.81 by $0.06. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 30.09% and a net margin of 2.94%.The firm had revenue of $86.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.15 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Costco Wholesale Corporation will post 18.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 31st will be paid a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 31st. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.56%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Costco Wholesale news, EVP Claudine Adamo sold 2,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $935.68, for a total value of $2,526,336.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 6,851 shares in the company, valued at $6,410,343.68. This represents a 28.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 3,381 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $915.00, for a total value of $3,093,615.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 9,740 shares in the company, valued at $8,912,100. This represents a 25.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 7,920 shares of company stock worth $7,373,175 over the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.