Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) EVP Sells $3,921,060.00 in Stock

Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) EVP Russell D. Miller sold 4,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $891.15, for a total value of $3,921,060.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 10,202 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,091,512.30. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Costco Wholesale Price Performance

Shares of Costco Wholesale stock opened at $885.29 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $888.57 and a 200 day moving average of $831.04. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 12 month low of $540.23 and a 12 month high of $923.83. The firm has a market cap of $392.48 billion, a PE ratio of 54.85, a PEG ratio of 5.53 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 results on Thursday, September 26th. The retailer reported $5.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.05 by $0.10. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 31.05% and a net margin of 2.90%. The company had revenue of $79.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $79.91 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $4.86 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 17.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Costco Wholesale from $985.00 to $990.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Costco Wholesale from $800.00 to $850.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Loop Capital increased their target price on Costco Wholesale from $975.00 to $1,005.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Costco Wholesale from $876.00 to $995.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their target price on Costco Wholesale from $955.00 to $980.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Costco Wholesale has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $890.07.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Costco Wholesale

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of COST. Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 99,208.6% in the 2nd 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 last quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Costco Wholesale in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $510,353,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 287.3% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 836,247 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $710,802,000 after purchasing an additional 620,341 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC lifted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 51,747.5% in the 2nd quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 619,578 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $5,266,000 after purchasing an additional 618,383 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 40,833,870 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $29,916,118,000 after purchasing an additional 473,702 shares during the last quarter. 68.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.