Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) Short Interest Update

Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) was the target of a large decline in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,360,000 shares, a decline of 5.9% from the March 15th total of 6,760,000 shares. Approximately 1.4% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 2,120,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.0 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Susan L. Decker sold 1,442 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $723.48, for a total transaction of $1,043,258.16. Following the sale, the director now owns 12,395 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,967,534.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Costco Wholesale news, EVP Claudine Adamo sold 1,500 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $714.83, for a total transaction of $1,072,245.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,695 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,785,786.85. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Susan L. Decker sold 1,442 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $723.48, for a total value of $1,043,258.16. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 12,395 shares in the company, valued at $8,967,534.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,942 shares of company stock worth $7,602,943 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Costco Wholesale

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 14.5% in the first quarter. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC now owns 788 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $578,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. D.B. Root & Company LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale by 4.7% in the first quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC now owns 3,726 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $2,730,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares during the period. Trilogy Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of Costco Wholesale in the first quarter worth $213,000. Red Door Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Costco Wholesale by 4.3% during the first quarter. Red Door Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,089 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $8,857,000 after buying an additional 498 shares during the period. Finally, Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC boosted its stake in Costco Wholesale by 17.5% during the first quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC now owns 5,408 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,962,000 after buying an additional 807 shares during the period. 68.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

COST has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Telsey Advisory Group reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $800.00 price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $693.00 to $741.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 21st. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $680.00 price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Loop Capital dropped their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $830.00 to $820.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Roth Mkm boosted their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $601.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $691.28.

Costco Wholesale Stock Performance

Shares of COST opened at $715.19 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The company has a market capitalization of $317.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.78, a PEG ratio of 4.77 and a beta of 0.77. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $730.83 and a 200 day moving average of $659.23. Costco Wholesale has a 12 month low of $476.75 and a 12 month high of $787.08.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The retailer reported $3.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.62 by $0.09. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 28.80% and a net margin of 2.73%. The business had revenue of $58.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $59.11 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.30 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale will post 15.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 26th will be issued a $1.16 dividend. This is a positive change from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 25th. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.68%.

About Costco Wholesale

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.