Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC Purchases 1,193 Shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC boosted its position in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 5.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 22,355 shares of the retailer’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,193 shares during the period. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $14,756,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Costco Wholesale by 1.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,108,655 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $10,287,718,000 after acquiring an additional 333,308 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Costco Wholesale by 18.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,634,627 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,941,708,000 after acquiring an additional 1,315,174 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Costco Wholesale by 118,320.2% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,396,524 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,376,513,000 after acquiring an additional 7,390,278 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Costco Wholesale by 4.3% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,134,947 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,901,040,000 after acquiring an additional 210,586 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Costco Wholesale in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,328,844,000. 68.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Costco Wholesale

In other Costco Wholesale news, EVP Caton Frates sold 740 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $683.50, for a total transaction of $505,790.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 6,721 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,593,803.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, Director W Craig Jelinek sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $685.93, for a total value of $5,487,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 216,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,306,297.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Caton Frates sold 740 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $683.50, for a total transaction of $505,790.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,721 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,593,803.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 15,582 shares of company stock valued at $10,736,778 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Costco Wholesale Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of COST stock traded up $0.55 on Thursday, hitting $732.63. 1,711,632 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,158,359. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.93. Costco Wholesale Co. has a one year low of $476.75 and a one year high of $787.08. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $724.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $642.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $324.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.90, a P/E/G ratio of 5.07 and a beta of 0.77.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The retailer reported $3.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.62 by $0.09. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.73% and a return on equity of 28.80%. The company had revenue of $58.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $59.11 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.30 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 15.78 EPS for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 2nd were given a dividend of $1.02 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 1st. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.56%. Costco Wholesale’s payout ratio is currently 26.68%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on COST. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $640.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 12th. Loop Capital upped their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $710.00 to $755.00 in a research note on Friday, January 19th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $640.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $665.00 to $749.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Costco Wholesale from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $668.50.

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.