Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) Shares Sold by Opal Wealth Advisors LLC

Opal Wealth Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 15.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 462 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 84 shares during the period. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $338,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in COST. Catalyst Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 36.3% during the first quarter. Catalyst Private Wealth LLC now owns 928 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $680,000 after purchasing an additional 247 shares in the last quarter. Cooper Financial Group raised its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 1.5% during the first quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 4,147 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $3,038,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 37.1% during the first quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 805 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $590,000 after purchasing an additional 218 shares in the last quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. increased its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 3.2% in the first quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 23,254 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $17,037,000 after buying an additional 713 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aua Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 2.4% in the first quarter. Aua Capital Management LLC now owns 768 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $563,000 after buying an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Costco Wholesale Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of COST opened at $849.65 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $788.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $732.58. The firm has a market cap of $376.68 billion, a PE ratio of 52.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.70 and a beta of 0.79. Costco Wholesale Co. has a fifty-two week low of $521.26 and a fifty-two week high of $873.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The retailer reported $3.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.70 by $0.08. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.83% and a return on equity of 30.02%. The company had revenue of $58.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.43 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 of this dividend was Thursday, April 25th. This is a positive change from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. Costco Wholesale’s payout ratio is 28.75%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

COST has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $860.00 to $890.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $680.00 target price on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Gordon Haskett cut shares of Costco Wholesale from a “buy” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $775.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Loop Capital increased their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $890.00 to $940.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 14th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $800.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $752.96.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of Costco Wholesale 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,228,600. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.18% 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.