Hopwood Financial Services Inc. Takes $556,000 Position in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Hopwood Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 607 shares of the retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $556,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 10,726 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $9,827,000 after buying an additional 757 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Costco Wholesale by 32.6% during the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 68,976 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $63,200,000 after purchasing an additional 16,967 shares during the last quarter. Summit X LLC boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 32.0% in the fourth quarter. Summit X LLC now owns 619 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $567,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its stake in Costco Wholesale by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 12,223 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $11,199,000 after purchasing an additional 1,021 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bender Robert & Associates raised its stake in Costco Wholesale by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Bender Robert & Associates now owns 1,482 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,358,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on COST shares. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Costco Wholesale from $1,000.00 to $1,075.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. DA Davidson lifted their price target on Costco Wholesale from $900.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Telsey Advisory Group restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $1,100.00 target price on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $1,075.00 price target (up from $980.00) on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Friday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,030.43.

Costco Wholesale Stock Performance

NASDAQ:COST opened at $930.49 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $413.04 billion, a PE ratio of 54.64, a PEG ratio of 6.15 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 1 year low of $697.27 and a 1 year high of $1,078.24. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $990.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $944.64.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 6th. The retailer reported $4.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.09 by ($0.07). Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.93% and a return on equity of 32.31%. The business had revenue of $63.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $63.02 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 18.03 EPS for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were issued a dividend of $1.16 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.09%.

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.