Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,360,000 shares, a decline of 5.9% from the March 15th total of 6,760,000 shares. Currently, 1.4% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,120,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.0 days.

Costco Wholesale Price Performance

COST traded down $2.31 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $715.97. 1,403,441 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,111,395. 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 has a 12-month low of $476.75 and a 12-month high of $787.08. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $730.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $657.77. The company has a market cap of $317.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.16, a PEG ratio of 4.87 and a beta of 0.77.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 7th. The retailer reported $3.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.62 by $0.09. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.73% and a return on equity of 28.80%. The business had revenue of $58.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $59.11 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.30 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale will post 15.84 EPS for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 26th will be issued a dividend of $1.16 per share. This is a positive change from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 25th. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Yoram Rubanenko sold 2,500 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $680.33, for a total value of $1,700,825.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 5,910 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,020,750.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Costco Wholesale news, VP Yoram Rubanenko sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $680.33, for a total transaction of $1,700,825.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 5,910 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,020,750.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director W Craig Jelinek sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $685.93, for a total transaction of $5,487,440.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 216,212 shares in the company, valued at $148,306,297.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 13,442 shares of company stock valued at $9,303,768 over the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of COST. United Bank boosted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 9.2% during the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 5,254 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,026,000 after acquiring an additional 444 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 33.6% during the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 383,691 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $220,948,000 after acquiring an additional 96,566 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 87.1% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 232 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $134,000 after acquiring an additional 108 shares during the last quarter. Bridgefront Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Costco Wholesale during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $333,000. Finally, Next Century Growth Investors LLC boosted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Next Century Growth Investors LLC now owns 3,414 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,965,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. 68.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

COST has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $760.00 to $805.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Loop Capital dropped their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $830.00 to $820.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $745.00 to $870.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Gordon Haskett cut shares of Costco Wholesale from a “buy” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $775.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Roth Mkm increased their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $601.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $691.28.

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.