Inscription Capital LLC Buys 150 Shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Inscription Capital LLC grew its stake in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 9.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,734 shares of the retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the quarter. Inscription Capital LLC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $1,246,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 19,653 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $14,398,000 after acquiring an additional 352 shares during the last quarter. Apella Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 8.5% in the 1st quarter. Apella Capital LLC now owns 2,623 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,885,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the period. American National Bank grew its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. American National Bank now owns 20,504 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $15,022,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 43.2% in the 1st quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 5,275 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,865,000 after purchasing an additional 1,592 shares during the period. Finally, Grandview Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Grandview Asset Management LLC now owns 2,681 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,964,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the period. 68.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

COST has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $890.00 to $940.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 14th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $860.00 to $890.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays upped their price target on Costco Wholesale from $700.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. StockNews.com raised Costco Wholesale from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, June 2nd. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price target on Costco Wholesale from $777.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Costco Wholesale presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $752.96.

Costco Wholesale Stock Performance

COST opened at $848.31 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $376.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.70 and a beta of 0.79. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 52-week low of $519.34 and a 52-week high of $873.96. 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 business’s fifty day moving average is $788.13 and its 200-day moving average is $730.83.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The retailer reported $3.78 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analyst estimates of $58.16 billion. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 30.02% and a net margin of 2.83%. Costco Wholesale’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.43 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 26th were issued a dividend of $1.16 per share. This is a positive change from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 25th. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio is 28.75%.

Insider Transactions at Costco Wholesale

In other news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by 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.