Costco Wholesale Corp (NASDAQ:COST) saw a downside of -0.43% to $556.23 after subtracting -$2.39 on Tuesday. The 5-day average trading volume is 1,297,652 shares of the company’s common stock. It has gained $569.22 in the past week and touched a new high 1 time within the past 5 days. An average of 1,417,008 shares of the company has been traded in the last 20 days, and the 50-day average volume stands at 1,503,537.
COST’s 1-month performance is 4.16% or $22.17 on its low of $533.12 reached on 08/28/23. The company’s shares have touched a 52-week low of $447.90 and high of $571.16, with the stock’s rally to the 52-week high happening on 07/27/23. YTD, COST has achieved 21.85% or $99.68 and has reached a new high 27 times. However, the current price is down -2.61% from the 52-week high price.
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Insider Transactions
COST stock investors last saw insider trading activity on Jun 28.DECKER SUSAN L (Director) most recently sold 1,565 shares at $533.00 per share on Jun 28. This transaction cost the insider $834,145. Executive VP and CFO, GALANTI RICHARD A, sold 1,500 shares at a price of $522.02 on Jun 13. Then, on Jun 07, Director DECKER SUSAN L sold 3,971 shares at a price of $514.14 per share. This transaction amounted to $2,041,659.
Valuation Metrics
COST stock has a beta of 0.78. Moving on to other valuation ratios, the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio is 1.05 while the price-to-book (PB) in the most recent quarter is 10.46, with the price to cash flow ratio at 42.33.
Costco Wholesale Corp’s quick ratio for the period ended May 30 was 0.57, with the current ratio over the same period at 1.08. As well, the company’s long term debt to equity for the quarter ending May 30 was 0.38, while the total debt to equity was 0.38. In terms of profitability, the gross margin trailing 12 months is 12.11%. The trailing 12-month EBITDA margin is 4.44% while for the period ending May 30, Costco Wholesale Corp’s operating margin was 3.33%. The firm’s gross profit as reported stood at $27.57 billion against revenue of $226.95 billion.
Earnings Surprise
For the quarterly period ending May 30 this year, Net income and sales went down compared to those figures reported in the previous quarter. Net income shrunk -3.92% to $1.3 billion, while revenue of $1.47 billion was -12.6% off the previous quarter. Analysts expected COST to announce $3.29 per share in earnings in its latest quarter, but it posted $2.93, representing a -10.90% surprise. EBITDA for the quarter stood at more than $2.15 billion. COST stock balance sheet for the quarter ending May 30 shows that total liabilities totaled 43.18 billion, with total debt at $9.0 billion. Shareholders hold equity totaling $443.15 million.
Let’s look briefly at Costco Wholesale Corp (COST) price momentum from a technical analysis perspective. The 9-day relative strength index as at close on 25 September was 49.87% to suggest the stock is trending Neutral, with historical volatility in this time period at 14.46%.
The stock’s 5-day moving average is $558.46, reflecting a -1.45% or -$8.16 change from its current price. COST is currently trading +3.73% above its 20-day SMA, +13.49% above its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is away from the SMA50 by +0.58% and SMA200 by+15.40%.
Stochastic %K and %D was 58.21% and 61.01% and the average true range (ATR) pointed at 7.31. The RSI (14) points at 52.05%, while the 14-day stochastic is at 47.73% with the period’s ATR at 7.33. The stock’s 9-day MACD Oscillator is pointing at -2.26 and -0.60 on the 14-day charts.
Analyst Ratings
In the most recent analyst report for Costco Wholesale Corp (NASDAQ: COST), HSBC Securities launched coverage with a Hold rating. Analysts offering their rating for COST stock have a consensus rating for the stock as Overweight. Currently, 0 brokerage advisors rate COST as a “sell,”, while 10 advise that investors “Hold.” 2 analysts have rated the stock as underweight. 4 rates the stock as overweight while 21 have offered a “buy” rating.
What is COST’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts have a consensus price target ranging from a low of $478.00 and a high of $651.00, with their median price target at $580.00. Looking at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts is for Costco Wholesale Corp (COST) stock is $573.86.
