Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC Has $1.91 Million Holdings in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 4.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,153 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 101 shares during the quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $1,909,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Black Diamond Financial LLC lifted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 6.3% during the third quarter. Black Diamond Financial LLC now owns 592 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $525,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. First Business Financial Services Inc. lifted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 12.9% during the third quarter. First Business Financial Services Inc. now owns 4,076 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $3,613,000 after acquiring an additional 466 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 3.9% during the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 185,056 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $163,968,000 after acquiring an additional 6,963 shares in the last quarter. Balboa Wealth Partners lifted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 4.6% during the third quarter. Balboa Wealth Partners now owns 4,621 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $4,097,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ING Groep NV lifted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 24.4% during the third quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 129,143 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $114,488,000 after acquiring an additional 25,345 shares in the last quarter. 68.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Claudine Adamo sold 3,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $888.99, for a total transaction of $2,844,768.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 8,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,671,983.70. This represents a 27.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Richard A. Galanti sold 1,416 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $894.68, for a total value of $1,266,866.88. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 27,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,514,232. The trade was a 4.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,016 shares of company stock valued at $9,826,115 over the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

COST has been the topic of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $980.00 price target (up from $950.00) on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Friday, September 27th. Telsey Advisory Group restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $1,000.00 price target on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Monday, November 4th. Gordon Haskett upgraded 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. Tigress Financial restated a “buy” rating and issued a $1,065.00 price target on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $880.00 price target on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $905.30.

Costco Wholesale Price Performance

Costco Wholesale stock opened at $907.07 on Friday. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 12 month low of $572.24 and a 12 month high of $962.00. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $897.62 and its 200-day moving average is $857.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The company has a market capitalization of $401.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.74, a PEG ratio of 5.76 and a beta of 0.80.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The retailer reported $5.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $79.91 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $4.86 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 17.75 EPS for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 1st were given a dividend of $1.16 per share. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 1st. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.00%.

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.