Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) Shares Purchased by Security Financial Services INC.

Security Financial Services INC. raised its stake in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 10.4% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 414 shares of the retailer’s stock after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the quarter. Security Financial Services INC.’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $303,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Enterprise Financial Services Corp raised its position in Costco Wholesale by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Enterprise Financial Services Corp now owns 892 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $589,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. increased its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. now owns 870 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $574,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. First National Corp MA ADV increased its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. First National Corp MA ADV now owns 3,098 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,045,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Morton Capital Management LLC CA increased its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Morton Capital Management LLC CA now owns 1,564 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,032,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Insight Advisors LLC PA increased its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Insight Advisors LLC PA now owns 2,736 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,807,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on COST shares. Telsey Advisory Group increased their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $850.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 6th. Tigress Financial raised their price target on Costco Wholesale from $745.00 to $870.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Costco Wholesale from $750.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. StockNews.com upgraded Costco Wholesale from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $875.00 price target (up previously from $800.00) on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $752.96.

Costco Wholesale Stock Performance

Costco Wholesale stock opened at $842.34 on Monday. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average of $788.13 and a two-hundred day moving average of $732.58. The company has a market capitalization of $373.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.56, a PEG ratio of 5.70 and a beta of 0.79. Costco Wholesale Co. has a fifty-two week low of $521.26 and a fifty-two week high of $873.96.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last released 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 during 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%. Costco Wholesale’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.43 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 26th were given a $1.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 25th. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.55%. This is an increase from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. Costco Wholesale’s payout ratio is currently 28.75%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $722.86, for a total value of $567,445.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,228,600. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.