Financial Partners Group LLC Purchases New Position in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Financial Partners Group LLC acquired a new stake in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 1,615 shares of the retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $1,183,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in COST. Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Costco Wholesale in the third quarter valued at approximately $473,000. Waverly Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 24.2% in the third quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 2,294 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,296,000 after acquiring an additional 447 shares during the last quarter. United Services Automobile Association boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 13.0% in the third quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 12,032 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $6,798,000 after acquiring an additional 1,381 shares during the last quarter. Per Stirling Capital Management LLC. boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 9.8% in the third quarter. Per Stirling Capital Management LLC. now owns 427 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $241,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 3.4% in the third quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 9,489 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $5,361,000 after acquiring an additional 310 shares during the last quarter. 68.48% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

COST has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Costco Wholesale from $860.00 to $890.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 20th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective 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 raised Costco Wholesale from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 2nd. Citigroup boosted 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. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $815.00 to $873.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $756.85.

Costco Wholesale Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ COST opened at $849.99 on Monday. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 1-year low of $524.63 and a 1-year high of $873.96. The company has a market cap of $376.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 0.78. 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 stock’s 50-day moving average is $801.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $740.64.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 30th. The retailer reported $3.78 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.70 by $0.08. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 30.02% and a net margin of 2.83%. The business had revenue of $58.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.16 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.43 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.96 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 issued a $1.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date 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 dividend payout ratio is presently 28.75%.

Insider Activity at Costco Wholesale

In other Costco Wholesale news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,228,600. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.