Oppenheimer Increases Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) Price Target to $950.00

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) had its price objective increased by research analysts at Oppenheimer from $905.00 to $950.00 in a research note issued on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the retailer’s stock. Oppenheimer’s price target suggests a potential upside of 12.71% from the company’s current price.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on COST. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $750.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 31st. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $850.00 to $975.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $700.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 31st. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $900.00 price target on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Finally, Loop Capital boosted their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $890.00 to $940.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $799.33.

Costco Wholesale Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of COST stock opened at $842.90 on Thursday. Costco Wholesale has a 1 year low of $530.56 and a 1 year high of $896.67. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $829.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $753.54. 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 company has a market cap of $373.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.22, a PEG ratio of 5.85 and a beta of 0.78.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 30th. The retailer reported $3.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.70 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $58.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.16 billion. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.83% and a return on equity of 30.02%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.43 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Costco Wholesale will post 15.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Costco Wholesale news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $722.86, for a total value of $567,445.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 10,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,228,600. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Costco Wholesale

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC grew its stake in Costco Wholesale by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 1,763 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,164,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 28.9% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 272,288 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $179,822,000 after purchasing an additional 61,122 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 15.6% during the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 21,514 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $14,201,000 after purchasing an additional 2,909 shares in the last quarter. Zhang Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 3.8% during the first quarter. Zhang Financial LLC now owns 1,010 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $740,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strong Tower Advisory Services boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 7.9% during the first quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services now owns 1,867 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,346,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares in the last quarter. 68.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.