Carlson Capital Management Sells 1,785 Shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Carlson Capital Management trimmed its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 69.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 780 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 1,785 shares during the quarter. Carlson Capital Management’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $572,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Costco Wholesale during the fourth quarter valued at $3,628,694,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 61,693.5% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,105,124 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $2,049,630,000 after purchasing an additional 3,100,099 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado raised its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 3,647.1% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 567,641 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $374,688,000 after purchasing an additional 552,492 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Costco Wholesale by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 40,360,168 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $26,640,940,000 after acquiring an additional 485,051 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd purchased a new stake in Costco Wholesale during the 4th quarter valued at about $297,915,000. 68.48% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

COST has been the subject of several analyst reports. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $815.00 to $873.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Roth Mkm reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $676.00 target price (up from $650.00) on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Friday, May 31st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $750.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 31st. Gordon Haskett lowered shares of Costco Wholesale from a “buy” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $775.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $850.00 to $905.00 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Costco Wholesale has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $752.96.

Costco Wholesale Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ COST opened at $848.16 on Tuesday. 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 $521.26 and a twelve month high of $873.96. The company has a market capitalization of $376.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.55, a PEG ratio of 5.61 and a beta of 0.79. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $790.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $734.25.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.43 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $722.86, for a total value of $567,445.10. Following the transaction, 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 through the SEC website. 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.