Motive Wealth Advisors Acquires New Position in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Motive Wealth Advisors bought a new stake in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 414 shares of the retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $303,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in COST. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC grew its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 1,763 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,164,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC grew its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 28.9% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 272,288 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $179,822,000 after purchasing an additional 61,122 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC grew its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 15.6% in the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 21,514 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $14,201,000 after purchasing an additional 2,909 shares during the period. Finally, Zhang Financial LLC grew its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 3.8% in the first quarter. Zhang Financial LLC now owns 1,010 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $740,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. 68.48% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

COST has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $680.00 target price on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Roth Mkm restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $676.00 target price (up from $650.00) on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Friday, May 31st. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $874.00 to $962.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Telsey Advisory Group restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $900.00 target price on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Monday. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $890.00 to $920.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $799.33.

Costco Wholesale Stock Down 0.4 %

COST traded down $3.69 during trading on Friday, hitting $842.90. The company had a trading volume of 3,284,585 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,995,215. The company has a market cap of $373.68 billion, a PE ratio of 52.22, a P/E/G ratio of 5.85 and a beta of 0.78. The business has a 50-day moving average of $829.88 and a 200-day moving average of $753.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.45. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 1-year low of $530.56 and a 1-year high of $896.67.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The retailer reported $3.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.43 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 26th will be paid a dividend of $1.16 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 26th. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.55%. Costco Wholesale’s payout ratio is 28.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Costco Wholesale

In other news, EVP Russell D. Miller sold 785 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 10,000 shares in the company, valued at $7,228,600. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.