Costco Wholesale - COST Stock Forecast, Price & News

21 Wall Street research analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Costco Wholesale in the last year. There are currently 5 hold ratings and 16 buy ratings for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street research analysts is that investors should "buy" COST shares.
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21 analysts have issued 12 month price targets for Costco Wholesale's stock. Their COST share price forecasts range from $450.00 to $635.00. On average, they predict the company's stock price to reach $550.16 in the next twelve months. This suggests a possible upside of 11.0% from the stock's current price.
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Costco Wholesale's stock was trading at $456.50 at the beginning of 2023. Since then, COST shares have increased by 8.6% and is now trading at $495.86.
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Costco Wholesale saw a increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totaling 3,520,000 shares, an increase of 14.7% from the February 28th total of 3,070,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,940,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.8 days. Approximately 0.8% of the company's stock are short sold.
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The company is scheduled to release its next quarterly earnings announcement on Thursday, May 25th 2023.
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Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March, 2nd. The retailer reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.20 by $0.10. The retailer had revenue of $55.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $55.61 billion. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.58% and a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 28.66%. Costco Wholesale's revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.92 earnings per share.

Costco Wholesale announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.90 per share on Friday, February 17th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 2nd.
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), iShares U.S. Consumer Focused ETF (IEDI), Vanguard Consumer Staples ETF (VDC), Fidelity MSCI Consumer Staples Index ETF (FSTA), VanEck Retail ETF (RTH), ProShares Ultra Consumer Staples (UGE), God Bless America ETF (YALL) and Democratic Large Cap Core ETF (DEMZ).

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) pays an annual dividend of $3.60 per share and currently has a dividend yield of 0.74%. The company has been increasing its dividend for 18 consecutive years, indicating the company has a strong committment to maintain and grow its dividend. The dividend payout ratio is 26.45%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%. Based on earnings estimates, COST will have a dividend payout ratio of 23.09% next year. This indicates that the company will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.
Read our dividend analysis for COST.

Costco Wholesale same store sales rose 10% during the month of January. Costco Wholesale shares climbed by 0% in the first full-day of trading following the news.

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 trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol "COST."

Costco Wholesale's stock is owned by a variety of institutional and retail investors. Top institutional investors include Morgan Stanley (1.95%), Geode Capital Management LLC (1.83%), Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC (1.67%), Norges Bank (1.15%), Alliancebernstein L.P. (1.11%) and Jennison Associates LLC (0.97%). Insiders that own company stock include 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, Richard A Galanti, Roland Michael Vachris, Russell D Miller, Susan L Decker and Timothy L Rose.
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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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One share of COST stock can currently be purchased for approximately $495.86.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) has a market capitalization of $219.90 billion and generates $226.95 billion in revenue each year. The retailer earns $5.84 billion in net income (profit) each year or $13.61 on an earnings per share basis.

The company employs 304,000 workers across the globe.

Costco Wholesale's mailing address is 999 LAKE DRIVE, ISSAQUAH WA, 98027. The official website for the company is www.costco.com. The retailer can be reached via phone at (425) 313-8100, via email at investor@costco.com, or via fax at 425-313-6593.