Farmers Trust Co. Acquires Shares of 295 Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Farmers Trust Co. acquired a new stake in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 295 shares of the retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.0% during the third quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 28,855 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $16,302,000 after buying an additional 273 shares during the period. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 1,763 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,164,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the period. 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 worth $179,822,000 after buying an additional 61,122 shares during the period. 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 worth $14,201,000 after buying an additional 2,909 shares during the period. Finally, Rice Partnership LLC boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 21.0% during the third quarter. Rice Partnership LLC now owns 11,741 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $6,633,000 after buying an additional 2,038 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on COST. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $815.00 to $873.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 31st. Telsey Advisory Group increased their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $850.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 6th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $777.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 31st. StockNews.com raised shares of Costco Wholesale from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, June 2nd. Finally, Barclays increased their price target 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. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $752.96.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 10,000 shares in the company, valued at $7,228,600. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Costco Wholesale Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of COST opened at $862.44 on Friday. 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $785.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $729.10. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 1-year low of $516.54 and a 1-year high of $873.96. The stock has a market cap of $382.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.76 and a beta of 0.79.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 30th. The retailer reported $3.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.70 by $0.08. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.83% and a return on equity of 30.02%. The business had revenue of $58.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.16 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.43 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 of this dividend was Thursday, April 25th. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.54%. This is a positive change from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.75%.

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.