Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) Given a $173.00 Price Target at Stifel Nicolaus

Stifel Nicolaus set a $173.00 price target on Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the retailer’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Northcoast Research upgraded Costco Wholesale Corporation from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $190.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 20th. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (The) cut Costco Wholesale Corporation from a conviction-buy rating to a neutral rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $197.00 to $176.00 in a report on Friday, June 16th. BidaskClub cut Costco Wholesale Corporation from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, June 20th. Wells Fargo & Company restated a hold rating on shares of Costco Wholesale Corporation in a report on Friday, May 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut Costco Wholesale Corporation from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $185.00 to $160.00 in a report on Monday, July 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock currently has a consensus rating of Buy and an average price target of $179.11.

Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) traded down 0.93% during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $156.44. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,117,944 shares. Costco Wholesale Corporation has a 1-year low of $142.11 and a 1-year high of $183.18. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $158.29 and a 200-day moving average price of $168.02. The company has a market capitalization of $68.61 billion, a PE ratio of 27.16 and a beta of 0.93. Costco Wholesale Corporation also was the target of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock investors purchased 6,031 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 231% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,822 put options.

Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 25th. The retailer reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $1.31 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $28.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $28.57 billion. Costco Wholesale Corporation had a return on equity of 20.45% and a net margin of 2.06%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.24 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Costco Wholesale Corporation will post $5.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 1st. Investors of record on Friday, August 18th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 16th. This is a boost from Costco Wholesale Corporation’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. Costco Wholesale Corporation’s payout ratio is currently 34.66%.

In related news, Director John W. Meisenbach sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.28, for a total transaction of $160,280.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,974 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $957,512.72. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP James P. Murphy sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.30, for a total value of $906,500.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 48,845 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,855,598.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 15,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,677,430 in the last three months. 0.74% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Delta Asset Management LLC TN boosted its position in Costco Wholesale Corporation by 11.6% in the second quarter. Delta Asset Management LLC TN now owns 627 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $100,000 after buying an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Capital Advisers Inc. boosted its position in Costco Wholesale Corporation by 43.4% in the first quarter. Mercer Capital Advisers Inc. now owns 664 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $111,000 after buying an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in Costco Wholesale Corporation during the second quarter valued at $107,000. Mosaic Family Wealth LLC boosted its position in Costco Wholesale Corporation by 16.7% in the first quarter. Mosaic Family Wealth LLC now owns 700 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $117,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CKW Financial Group boosted its position in Costco Wholesale Corporation by 33.1% in the first quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 804 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $135,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. 74.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Costco Wholesale Corporation Company Profile

Costco Wholesale Corporation is engaged in the operation of membership warehouses in the United States and Puerto Rico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Japan, Australia, Spain, and through its subsidiaries in Taiwan and Korea. As of August 28, 2016, the Company operated 715 warehouses across the world.