Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC Lowers Stake in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC lowered its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,574 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 27 shares during the period. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $6,024,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of COST. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 1.5% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 443,747 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $393,391,000 after buying an additional 6,495 shares during the period. United Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. United Bank now owns 5,962 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $5,285,000 after purchasing an additional 416 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 16.0% during the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 15,652 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $14,772,000 after purchasing an additional 2,156 shares during the last quarter. Algert Global LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1,760.3% during the 3rd quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 7,460 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $6,613,000 after purchasing an additional 7,059 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truepoint Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Costco Wholesale during the 3rd quarter valued at $465,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Roland Michael Vachris sold 3,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $931.00, for a total transaction of $3,351,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 41,077 shares in the company, valued at $38,242,687. This trade represents a 8.06 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Costco Wholesale Stock Performance

NASDAQ COST opened at $909.26 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $987.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $945.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $403.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.39, a PEG ratio of 6.15 and a beta of 0.82. Costco Wholesale Co. has a fifty-two week low of $697.27 and a fifty-two week high of $1,078.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.98.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 6th. The retailer reported $4.02 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $63.02 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 18.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were given a dividend of $1.16 per share. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.09%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

COST has been the subject of several analyst reports. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $975.00 to $1,090.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. DA Davidson increased their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $900.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $1,075.00 to $1,035.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $950.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Loop Capital cut their target price on Costco Wholesale from $1,150.00 to $1,135.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,029.00.

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.