Costco Wholesale Corporation $COST Shares Bought by Oak Grove Capital LLC

Oak Grove Capital LLC grew its position in Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) by 65.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,698 shares of the retailer’s stock after buying an additional 8,568 shares during the quarter. Costco Wholesale accounts for approximately 3.5% of Oak Grove Capital LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. Oak Grove Capital LLC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $21,480,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 443,101 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in Costco Wholesale by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 4,332,009 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $4,097,127,000 after purchasing an additional 18,045 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Costco Wholesale by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,907,670 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $3,695,796,000 after purchasing an additional 191,985 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Costco Wholesale during the 1st quarter worth about $3,461,159,000. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on COST. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $1,100.00 price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Costco Wholesale in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Citigroup decreased their price target on Costco Wholesale from $1,065.00 to $990.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Roth Capital set a $907.00 price target on Costco Wholesale and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Argus raised their price target on 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. Nineteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,068.15.

Costco Wholesale Stock Performance

NASDAQ COST opened at $932.14 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $413.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.19, a P/E/G ratio of 5.66 and a beta of 0.98. Costco Wholesale Corporation has a 1-year low of $867.34 and a 1-year high of $1,078.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 0.55. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $945.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $972.16.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The retailer reported $5.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.81 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $86.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.01 billion. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 30.09% and a net margin of 2.94%.The company’s revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $5.15 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Costco Wholesale Corporation will post 18.03 EPS for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Teresa A. Jones sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $992.05, for a total transaction of $595,230.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 2,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,343,222.10. The trade was a 20.26% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Tiffany Marie Barbre sold 1,239 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $934.62, for a total value of $1,157,994.18. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,155 shares in the company, valued at $4,817,966.10. This trade represents a 19.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 7,920 shares of company stock valued at $7,373,175. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.