DecisionMap Wealth Management LLC Takes $381,000 Position in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

DecisionMap Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 416 shares of the retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $381,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,808,255 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $2,489,574,000 after buying an additional 32,074 shares during the last quarter. Nwam LLC purchased a new position in shares of Costco Wholesale during the third quarter valued at about $20,056,000. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp bought a new stake in Costco Wholesale during the fourth quarter worth approximately $8,430,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Costco Wholesale by 15.0% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 7,662 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $7,020,000 after acquiring an additional 1,001 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dale Q Rice Investment Management Ltd bought a new position in shares of Costco Wholesale during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $984,000. Institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

COST has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup upped their target price on Costco Wholesale from $800.00 to $1,060.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research note on Friday, March 7th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $840.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $940.00 to $980.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,000.00 to $1,075.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Costco Wholesale has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,030.43.

Costco Wholesale Stock Performance

COST stock opened at $927.08 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $990.44 and a 200 day moving average price of $944.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $411.53 billion, a PE ratio of 54.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.15 and a beta of 0.81. 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 current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.43.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 6th. The retailer reported $4.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.09 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $63.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $63.02 billion. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.93% and a return on equity of 32.31%. Analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 18.03 EPS for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were paid a dividend of $1.16 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio is 27.09%.

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.