Mezzasalma Advisors LLC Acquires 930 Shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Mezzasalma Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 99.0% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,869 shares of the retailer’s stock after purchasing an additional 930 shares during the period. Mezzasalma Advisors LLC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $1,369,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 1.0% in the third quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 28,855 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $16,302,000 after acquiring an additional 273 shares during the last quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 1,763 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,164,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 28.9% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 272,288 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $179,822,000 after acquiring an additional 61,122 shares during the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 15.6% in the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 21,514 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $14,201,000 after acquiring an additional 2,909 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strong Tower Advisory Services boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 7.9% in the first quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services now owns 1,867 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,346,000 after acquiring an additional 137 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

COST has been the topic of several recent research reports. Loop Capital raised their price target on Costco Wholesale from $890.00 to $940.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 14th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $875.00 target price (up previously from $800.00) on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Argus raised their price target on Costco Wholesale from $805.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 28th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $680.00 price target on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group lifted their target price on Costco Wholesale from $850.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $758.70.

Costco Wholesale Price Performance

NASDAQ COST traded up $6.07 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $868.73. The company had a trading volume of 204,809 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,944,107. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. Costco Wholesale Co. has a twelve month low of $524.63 and a twelve month high of $873.96. The company has a market capitalization of $385.13 billion, a PE ratio of 53.45, a P/E/G ratio of 5.70 and a beta of 0.78. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $812.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $745.22.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last posted its quarterly 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 return on equity of 30.02% and a net margin of 2.83%. The company had revenue of $58.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.43 EPS. Costco Wholesale’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 10th. Investors of record on Friday, April 26th were given a dividend of $1.16 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 25th. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. This is a positive change from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. Costco Wholesale’s payout ratio is currently 28.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of the business’s 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 owns 10,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,228,600. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.