Truist Financial Downgrades Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) to Hold

Truist Financial lowered shares of Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat reports. They currently have $873.00 target price on the retailer’s stock.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $910.00 to $915.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. Gordon Haskett raised shares of Costco Wholesale from an accumulate rating to a buy rating and set a $925.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of Costco Wholesale from a buy rating to a neutral rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $860.00 to $890.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $850.00 to $975.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, Loop Capital upped their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $970.00 to $975.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $881.19.

Costco Wholesale Price Performance

COST opened at $885.62 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $869.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $814.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The company has a market capitalization of $392.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.87, a P/E/G ratio of 5.57 and a beta of 0.80. Costco Wholesale has a 1 year low of $540.23 and a 1 year high of $923.83.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $79.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $79.91 billion. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.83% and a return on equity of 30.02%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $4.86 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Costco Wholesale will post 16.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 9th. Investors of record on Friday, July 26th were given a $1.16 dividend. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 26th. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Daniel M. Hines sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $844.20, for a total value of $1,266,300.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,492 shares in the company, valued at $10,545,746.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Costco Wholesale news, Director Kenneth D. Denman sold 350 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $851.53, for a total transaction of $298,035.50. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,920 shares in the company, valued at $5,041,057.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Daniel M. Hines sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $844.20, for a total transaction of $1,266,300.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 12,492 shares in the company, valued at $10,545,746.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 4,974 shares of company stock worth $4,252,856. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Costco Wholesale

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in COST. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 99,208.6% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 1,474,733 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,253,508,000 after purchasing an additional 1,473,248 shares during the period. Global Assets Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in Costco Wholesale in the first quarter worth $510,353,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Costco Wholesale by 287.3% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 836,247 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $710,802,000 after acquiring an additional 620,341 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC lifted its stake in Costco Wholesale by 51,747.5% in the second quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 619,578 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $5,266,000 after acquiring an additional 618,383 shares during the period. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado lifted its stake in Costco Wholesale by 3,647.1% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 567,641 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $374,688,000 after acquiring an additional 552,492 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

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.