Costco Wholesale Stock Price, News & Analysis (NASDAQ:COST)

25 Wall Street equities research analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Costco Wholesale in the last year. There are currently 6 hold ratings and 19 buy ratings for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street equities research analysts is that investors should "moderate buy" COST shares.
View COST analyst ratings or view top-rated stocks.

25 brokers have issued twelve-month target prices for Costco Wholesale's stock. Their COST share price targets range from $502.00 to $652.00. On average, they anticipate the company's stock price to reach $594.60 in the next year. This suggests that the stock has a possible downside of 2.6%.
View analysts price targets for COST or view top-rated stocks among Wall Street analysts.

Costco Wholesale's stock was trading at $456.50 on January 1st, 2023. Since then, COST stock has increased by 33.8% and is now trading at $610.78.
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Costco Wholesale saw a increase in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totaling 5,310,000 shares, an increase of 20.4% from the October 31st total of 4,410,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,710,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.1 days. Currently, 1.2% of the shares of the company are sold short.
View Costco Wholesale's Short Interest.

The company is scheduled to release its next quarterly earnings announcement on Thursday, December 14th 2023.
View our COST earnings forecast.

Costco Wholesale will be holding an earnings conference call on Thursday, December 14th at 5:00 PM Eastern. Interested parties can register for or listen to the call using this link.

Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, September, 26th. The retailer reported $4.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.79 by $0.07. The retailer earned $78.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $77.72 billion. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.60% and a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 28.10%. Costco Wholesale's revenue was up 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $4.20 EPS.
Read the conference call transcript.

Costco Wholesale declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 18th. Investors of record on Friday, November 3rd will be given a dividend of $1.02 per share on Friday, November 17th. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 2nd.
Read our dividend analysis for COST.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) pays an annual dividend of $4.08 per share and currently has a dividend yield of 0.67%. The company has been increasing its dividend for 20 consecutive years, indicating the company has a strong committment to maintain and grow its dividend. The dividend payout ratio is 28.81%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%. Based on earnings estimates, COST will have a dividend payout ratio of 23.90% next year. This indicates that the company will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.
Read our dividend analysis for COST.

ETFs with the largest weight of Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) stock in their portfolio include Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLP), Fidelity MSCI Consumer Staples Index ETF (FSTA), Vanguard Consumer Staples ETF (VDC), ProShares Ultra Consumer Staples (UGE), VanEck Retail ETF (RTH), iShares U.S. Consumer Focused ETF (IEDI), iShares Global Consumer Staples ETF (KXI) and God Bless America ETF (YALL).

Costco Wholesale same-store sales increased by 10% during the month of November. Costco Wholesale stock climbed by 0% in the first full-day of trading following the report.

3,447 employees have rated Costco Wholesale Chief Executive Officer Craig Jelinek on Glassdoor.com. Craig Jelinek has an approval rating of 92% among the company's employees. This puts Craig Jelinek in the top 30% of approval ratings compared to other CEOs of publicly-traded companies.

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some companies that other Costco Wholesale investors own include NVIDIA (NVDA), Walt Disney (DIS), Alibaba Group (BABA), Home Depot (HD), Netflix (NFLX), Visa (V), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Tesla (TSLA), Walmart (WMT) and Boeing (BA).

Costco Wholesale's stock is owned by many different retail and institutional investors. Top institutional shareholders include FMR LLC (2.04%), Morgan Stanley (1.97%), Bank of New York Mellon Corp (1.30%), Northern Trust Corp (1.16%), Jennison Associates LLC (0.81%) and Legal & General Group Plc (0.63%). Insiders that own company stock include Caton Frates, Claudine Adamo, Daniel M Hines, James C Klauer, James C Klauer, James P Murphy, Joseph P Portera, Kenneth D Denman, Mary Agnes Wilderotter, Patrick J Callans, Patrick J Callans, Paul G Moulton, Pierre Riel, Richard A Galanti, Roland Michael Vachris, Russell D Miller, Susan L Decker and Timothy L Rose.
View institutional ownership trends.

Shares of COST stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include WeBull, Vanguard Brokerage Services, TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE, Robinhood, Fidelity, and Charles Schwab.
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