Peak Financial Advisors LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Peak Financial Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 11.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,636 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 476 shares during the quarter. Peak Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $2,664,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Costco Wholesale in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,628,694,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 3,100,099 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 3,647.1% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 567,641 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $374,688,000 after purchasing an additional 552,492 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 485,051 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd purchased a new stake in Costco Wholesale in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $297,915,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $722.86, for a total transaction of $567,445.10. Following the completion of 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on COST shares. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $676.00 price objective (up previously from $650.00) on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Friday, May 31st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $750.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $710.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “neutral” 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 target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $745.00 to $870.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $752.96.

Costco Wholesale Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of COST opened at $848.16 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $790.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $734.25. 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 market capitalization of $376.01 billion, a PE ratio of 52.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.61 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The retailer reported $3.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.43 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.98 EPS for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

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

Costco Wholesale Company 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.