22,624 Shares in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) Acquired by Nwam LLC

Nwam LLC purchased a new position in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 22,624 shares of the retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $20,056,000. Costco Wholesale accounts for approximately 1.2% of Nwam LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 12th biggest position.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Financial Connections Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Bank & Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Costco Wholesale during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 73.5% during the 2nd quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 59 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in Costco Wholesale in the 2nd quarter valued at $50,000. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 230.0% in the 2nd quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 66 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on COST shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $800.00 to $850.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on Costco Wholesale in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $1,016.00 price objective on the stock. Telsey Advisory Group restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $1,000.00 price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $855.00 to $950.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Costco Wholesale from $876.00 to $995.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $908.81.

Costco Wholesale Trading Up 0.9 %

NASDAQ:COST opened at $964.15 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $900.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $863.38. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 12-month low of $582.83 and a 12-month high of $966.79. The firm has a market cap of $427.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.83, a PEG ratio of 5.74 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The retailer reported $5.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.05 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $79.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $79.91 billion. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 31.05% and a net margin of 2.90%. Costco Wholesale’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $4.86 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 17.75 EPS for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st were given a $1.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 1st. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.00%.

Insider Activity

In other Costco Wholesale news, EVP Claudine Adamo sold 3,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $888.99, for a total transaction of $2,844,768.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,630 shares in the company, valued at $7,671,983.70. This represents a 27.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Richard A. Galanti sold 1,416 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $894.68, for a total value of $1,266,866.88. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 27,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,514,232. This represents a 4.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,016 shares of company stock worth $9,826,115 over the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.