Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) Shares Sold by Pensionfund Sabic

Pensionfund Sabic reduced its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 16.7% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 4,000 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 800 shares during the quarter. Costco Wholesale makes up about 0.9% of Pensionfund Sabic’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd largest position. Pensionfund Sabic’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $2,931,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in COST. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 40,360,168 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $26,640,940,000 after buying an additional 485,051 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Costco Wholesale in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,628,694,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,134,947 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,901,040,000 after buying an additional 210,586 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,539,245 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,336,198,000 after buying an additional 132,292 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 61,693.5% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,105,124 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,049,630,000 after buying an additional 3,100,099 shares during the period. 68.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

COST has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $700.00 to $765.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $845.00 to $860.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Gordon Haskett downgraded shares of Costco Wholesale from a “buy” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $775.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Costco Wholesale from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, June 2nd. Finally, Argus lifted their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $805.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 28th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $751.85.

Costco Wholesale Stock Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ COST opened at $870.75 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $783.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $728.16. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 12 month low of $516.54 and a 12 month high of $873.96. The company has a market capitalization of $386.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.95, a PEG ratio of 5.76 and a beta of 0.79.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The retailer reported $3.78 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.70 by $0.08. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.83% and a return on equity of 30.02%. The business had revenue of $58.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.43 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 26th were given a $1.16 dividend. This is an increase from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 25th. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.75%.

Insider Transactions at Costco Wholesale

In other news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $722.86, for a total value of $567,445.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,228,600. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.