Costco Wholesale (COST) Stock Forecast, Price & News

22 Wall Street analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Costco Wholesale in the last twelve months. There are currently 5 hold ratings and 17 buy ratings for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street analysts is that investors should "buy" COST shares.
View COST analyst ratings or view top-rated stocks.

22 analysts have issued twelve-month price objectives for Costco Wholesale's stock. Their COST share price forecasts range from $450.00 to $635.00. On average, they expect the company's stock price to reach $549.52 in the next year. This suggests a possible upside of 10.7% from the stock's current price.
View analysts price targets for COST or view top-rated stocks among Wall Street analysts.

Costco Wholesale's stock was trading at $456.50 at the beginning of 2023. Since then, COST shares have increased by 8.8% and is now trading at $496.52.
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Costco Wholesale saw a decline in short interest in the month of April. As of April 30th, there was short interest totaling 3,500,000 shares, a decline of 6.9% from the April 15th total of 3,760,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,840,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.9 days. Currently, 0.8% 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, May 25th 2023.
View our COST earnings forecast.

Costco Wholesale will be holding an earnings conference call on Thursday, May 25th 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 earnings results on Thursday, March, 2nd. The retailer reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.20 by $0.10. The retailer earned $55.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.61 billion. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.58% and a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 28.66%. The business's revenue was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.92 earnings per share.

Costco Wholesale declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 5th will be paid a dividend of $1.02 per share on Friday, May 19th. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 4th. This is an increase from the stock's previous quarterly dividend of $0.90.
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), Democratic Large Cap Core ETF (DEMZ) and Franklin Disruptive Commerce ETF (BUYZ).

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) pays an annual dividend of $4.08 per share and currently has a dividend yield of 0.82%. The company has been increasing its dividend for 19 consecutive years, indicating the company has a strong committment to maintain and grow its dividend. The dividend payout ratio is 29.98%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%. Based on earnings estimates, COST will have a dividend payout ratio of 26.37% 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 climbed 10% during the month of March. Costco Wholesale stock rose by 0% in the first 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 many different retail and institutional investors. Top institutional shareholders include State Street Corp (4.23%), FMR LLC (2.13%), Geode Capital Management LLC (1.85%), Bank of New York Mellon Corp (1.26%), Jennison Associates LLC (0.97%) and Wellington Management Group LLP (0.62%). 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, 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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One share of COST stock can currently be purchased for approximately $496.52.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) has a market capitalization of $220.20 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.