St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC Purchases 212 Shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC grew its position in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 14.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,729 shares of the retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 212 shares during the period. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $1,267,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.2% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Costco Wholesale in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,628,694,000. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,539,245 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,336,198,000 after purchasing an additional 132,292 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 61,693.5% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,105,124 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,049,630,000 after purchasing an additional 3,100,099 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,794,480 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,844,581,000 after purchasing an additional 85,398 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on COST. StockNews.com raised shares of Costco Wholesale from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, June 2nd. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $777.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 31st. Roth Mkm reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $676.00 price target (up previously from $650.00) on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Friday, May 31st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $800.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 31st. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $870.00 to $975.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $756.85.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Costco Wholesale news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,228,600. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Costco Wholesale Trading Up 0.2 %

COST opened at $856.84 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $379.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.09, a P/E/G ratio of 5.66 and a beta of 0.79. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 12 month low of $522.10 and a 12 month high of $873.96. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $793.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $735.97. 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 (NASDAQ:COST) last issued its quarterly 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. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.83% and a return on equity of 30.02%. The firm had revenue of $58.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.43 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 10th. Shareholders 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 is a boost from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.54%. Costco Wholesale’s payout ratio 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.