Planned Solutions Inc. Buys New Position in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Planned Solutions Inc. purchased a new stake in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 616 shares of the retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $407,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,108,655 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $10,287,718,000 after purchasing an additional 333,308 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 18.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,634,627 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $3,941,708,000 after purchasing an additional 1,315,174 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 118,320.2% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,396,524 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,376,513,000 after purchasing an additional 7,390,278 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Costco Wholesale by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,134,947 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,901,040,000 after purchasing an additional 210,586 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Costco Wholesale in the 4th quarter valued at $2,328,844,000. 68.48% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Costco Wholesale

In other news, Director W Craig Jelinek sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $685.93, for a total transaction of $5,487,440.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 216,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,306,297.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, insider Daniel M. Hines sold 1,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $662.30, for a total value of $927,220.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,922 shares in the company, valued at $9,220,540.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director W Craig Jelinek sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $685.93, for a total transaction of $5,487,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 216,212 shares in the company, valued at $148,306,297.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 15,582 shares of company stock worth $10,736,778. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Costco Wholesale Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ COST opened at $732.08 on Thursday. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 52 week low of $476.75 and a 52 week high of $787.08. The firm has a market cap of $324.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.88, a P/E/G ratio of 5.07 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.93. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $723.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $641.98.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The retailer reported $3.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.62 by $0.09. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 28.80% and a net margin of 2.73%. The company had revenue of $58.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $59.11 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.30 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 2nd were given a $1.02 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 1st. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.56%. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.68%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group boosted their target price on Costco Wholesale from $640.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 15th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $615.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 15th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $612.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 15th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Costco Wholesale from $640.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 12th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 15th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Costco Wholesale has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $668.50.

Costco Wholesale Company 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.