Great Lakes Advisors LLC Purchases 917 Shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Great Lakes Advisors LLC increased its position in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST - Free Report) by 2.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 36,744 shares of the retailer's stock after buying an additional 917 shares during the period. Great Lakes Advisors LLC's holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $33,667,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,487,057 shares of the retailer's stock worth $8,380,648,000 after buying an additional 162,191 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,308,615 shares of the retailer's stock worth $8,252,274,000 after buying an additional 324,973 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,399,127 shares of the retailer's stock worth $3,013,394,000 after buying an additional 125,444 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 3,077,905 shares of the retailer's stock worth $2,820,193,000 after buying an additional 43,414 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,075,065 shares of the retailer's stock worth $2,726,107,000 after buying an additional 70,561 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.48% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

COST has been the subject of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,065.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,075.00 to $1,125.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,000.00 to $1,075.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Roth Mkm raised their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $755.00 to $907.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $1,030.43.

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Costco Wholesale Stock Down 0.4 %

COST stock opened at $930.49 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $413.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.64, a P/E/G ratio of 6.15 and a beta of 0.81. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $990.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $944.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 52 week low of $697.27 and a 52 week high of $1,078.24.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 6th. The retailer reported $4.02 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $4.09 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $63.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $63.02 billion. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 32.31% and a net margin of 2.93%. Equities analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 18.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Announces Dividend

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

Costco Wholesale 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.

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