Wealthstar Advisors LLC Sells 15 Shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Wealthstar Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 4.6% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 309 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 15 shares during the period. Wealthstar Advisors LLC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $226,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Costco Wholesale by 1.0% during the third quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 28,855 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $16,302,000 after acquiring an additional 273 shares during the last quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC grew its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 1,763 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,164,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 28.9% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 272,288 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $179,822,000 after buying an additional 61,122 shares during the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 15.6% during the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 21,514 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $14,201,000 after buying an additional 2,909 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strong Tower Advisory Services grew its stake in Costco Wholesale by 7.9% in the first quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services now owns 1,867 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,346,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares in the last quarter. 68.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Costco Wholesale news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $722.86, for a total transaction of $567,445.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,228,600. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Costco Wholesale Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ COST traded up $3.30 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $862.66. The stock had a trading volume of 814,423 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,709,054. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.94. The company has a 50 day moving average of $810.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $744.39. Costco Wholesale Co. has a twelve month low of $524.63 and a twelve month high of $873.96. The firm has a market cap of $382.44 billion, a PE ratio of 53.45, a PEG ratio of 5.68 and a beta of 0.78.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The retailer reported $3.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.70 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $58.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.16 billion. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 30.02% and a net margin of 2.83%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.43 EPS. Research analysts predict that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 26th were given a dividend of $1.16 per share. This is an increase from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 25th. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 28.75%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $850.00 to $905.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 6th. Telsey Advisory Group increased their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $850.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 6th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $710.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $870.00 to $975.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $850.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $758.70.

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.