Foster & Motley Inc. Buys 53 Shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Foster & Motley Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 12.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 469 shares of the retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the period. Foster & Motley Inc.’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $430,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in COST. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 113,947.9% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 7,370,916 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $6,534,464,000 after purchasing an additional 7,364,453 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in Costco Wholesale by 55.7% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,068,772 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $979,284,000 after buying an additional 382,367 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 75,894.4% in the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 338,935 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $300,473,000 after acquiring an additional 338,489 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in Costco Wholesale by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,308,615 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $8,252,274,000 after acquiring an additional 324,973 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 1.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,487,057 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $8,380,648,000 after acquiring an additional 162,191 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on COST. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $1,005.00 to $1,095.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Costco Wholesale in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $1,016.00 price objective on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $950.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Barclays boosted their target price on Costco Wholesale from $850.00 to $940.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Raymond James raised their price target on Costco Wholesale from $990.00 to $1,030.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Costco Wholesale has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,013.59.

Costco Wholesale Price Performance

Shares of COST opened at $979.88 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The stock has a market cap of $434.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.75 and a beta of 0.84. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $954.19 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $906.54. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 1 year low of $691.50 and a 1 year high of $1,008.25.

Costco Wholesale Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be issued a $1.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.25%.

Costco Wholesale Profile

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.