Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) PT Lowered to $925.00 at Oppenheimer

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) had its price target decreased by Oppenheimer from $950.00 to $925.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the retailer’s stock.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $874.00 to $962.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $925.00 price target on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Monday, August 5th. Gordon Haskett upgraded shares of Costco Wholesale from an accumulate rating to a buy rating and set a $925.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Costco Wholesale from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Sunday, June 2nd. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $815.00 to $873.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, May 31st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $821.62.

Costco Wholesale Stock Up 1.8 %

COST stock opened at $854.93 on Thursday. Costco Wholesale has a one year low of $530.56 and a one year high of $896.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $379.02 billion, a PE ratio of 52.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.49 and a beta of 0.78. 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 fifty day moving average of $844.97 and a 200-day moving average of $776.95.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The retailer reported $3.78 EPS 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 analysts’ expectations of $58.16 billion. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.83% and a return on equity of 30.02%. The business’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.43 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Costco Wholesale will post 15.97 EPS for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 9th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 26th were paid a dividend of $1.16 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 26th. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.54%. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.75%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Daniel M. Hines sold 1,500 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $844.20, for a total transaction of $1,266,300.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 12,492 shares in the company, valued at $10,545,746.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Kenneth D. Denman sold 350 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $851.53, for a total transaction of $298,035.50. Following the sale, the director now owns 5,920 shares in the company, valued at $5,041,057.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Daniel M. Hines sold 1,500 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $844.20, for a total transaction of $1,266,300.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 12,492 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,545,746.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 3,350 shares of company stock worth $2,837,131 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Costco Wholesale

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in COST. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Costco Wholesale in the fourth quarter worth $3,628,694,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 99,208.6% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 1,474,733 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,253,508,000 after buying an additional 1,473,248 shares during the last quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Costco Wholesale in the first quarter worth $510,353,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 287.3% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 836,247 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $710,802,000 after buying an additional 620,341 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC increased its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 51,747.5% in the second quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 619,578 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $5,266,000 after buying an additional 618,383 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.48% 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.