Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) EVP Sells $2,844,768.00 in Stock

Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) EVP Claudine Adamo sold 3,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $888.99, for a total value of $2,844,768.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,671,983.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Costco Wholesale Price Performance

COST traded up $1.15 on Wednesday, hitting $878.53. 1,288,011 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,965,899. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $871.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $819.44. The firm has a market cap of $389.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.37, a P/E/G ratio of 5.47 and a beta of 0.80. Costco Wholesale Co. has a one year low of $540.23 and a one year high of $923.83. 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 earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The retailer reported $5.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.05 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $79.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $79.91 billion. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 30.02% and a net margin of 2.83%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $4.86 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 16.02 EPS for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 26th were paid a $1.16 dividend. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 26th. Costco Wholesale’s payout ratio is 28.75%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Costco Wholesale

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Costco Wholesale during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Costco Wholesale during the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. Vima LLC purchased a new position in Costco Wholesale during the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Financial Connections Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 557.1% during the 2nd quarter. Financial Connections Group Inc. now owns 46 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the period. Finally, Bank & Trust Co purchased a new position in Costco Wholesale during the 2nd quarter valued at $48,000. Institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on COST. Truist Financial lowered Costco Wholesale from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $873.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $874.00 to $962.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $915.00 to $925.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. StockNews.com downgraded Costco Wholesale from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $855.00 to $950.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $883.04.

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.