Costco stock: buy or sell?
Updated on:
March 27th, 2020
3
Costco Wholesale Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates membership warehouses. It offers branded and private-label products in a range of merchandise categories.
Should I buy Costco stock?
Trading stocks requires experience and discipline, and your buying and selling decisions must come following a methodology. Following a trading strategy helps to make decisions easier, quicker and with less hesitations. There are thousands of trading strategies for you to choose, but at Stocks2.com we prefer those that are simple but successful.None of our preferred buy setups matches with Costco Wholesale stock situation right now, therefore this is not a suitable entry point.
| Buy setup | Elegible |
|---|---|
| New all-time high | No |
| New 52 week high | No |
| Price crossing up 200d MA | No |
| 100d MA crossing up 200d MA | No |
Is Costco Wholesale stock a buy?
Financial institutions and banks post stock ratings everyday.
Unfortunately, we couldn't detect any rating for COST stock for the last month.Costco stock analysis
Daily outlook
Costco Wholesale ended yesterday at $284.33 and eased a godawful -2.73%.
Shares of Costco Wholesale eased a godawful -2.73% and closed at $284.33. In this session, Costco Wholesale stock crossed down the SMA200d line. If you are using SMA200d line as stop loss trigger, double check your position in this stock. On Feb/21, COST hit a new all time high, pushing higher than on February 20th tops. Check different trading setups that use ATHs as triggers.
Weekly outlook
Costco Wholesale shares declined -2.10% this week, ending at $284.33. Late February COST collapsed a bloodcurdling -14.52% in just one week. Early March COST skyrocketed a super good 9.70% in just one week. Counting this, it's been 3 sliding weeks in a row, loosing $-27.01 (-9.61%).
Not so far away is the last price record Costco Wholesale marked by mid February. Since last week, when COST stock price broke down the 40-weeks moving avarage line, it slid $-17.94 per share (-5.94%). Trading stocks that are under the 40-weeks (that is, 200-days) moving average line is not recommended by many experts, as it indicates that the stock has not enough institutional support. Since early May 2019 when SMA20w and SMA40w crossed up, COST price gained $41.95 per share (17.31%).
Costco stock price history
Costco stock went public on July 9th, 1986 with a price of $7.791. Since then, COST stock surged a 3,549.90%, with a yearly average of 107.60%. If you had invested $1,000 in Costco stock in 1986, it would worth $35,499.00 today.
1: Adjusted price after possible price splits or reverse-splits.
Costco stock historical price chart
COST stock reached all-time highs on February/21 with a price of $325.26.
Costco stock price target
How much a stock will be priced tomorrow or next week is quite unpredictable However, financial institutions invest time and resources to provide the most accurated estimations to help investors to make their decisions. We do not recommend to follow these stock price predictions without a critical thinking from your side, as their accuracy is usually low. For the last month we have not detected any price forecast for Costco Wholesale stock by any trusted analyst.Financials and fundamental analysis
Earnings date and Earnings per Share
, Costco Wholesale reported its latest financial data, posting a phenomenal growth for the Earnings per Share (EPS) ratio. Analyst expected $1.67 per share, but Costco Wholesale posted $2.01.| Quarter | Reporting date | Estimated EPS | Actual EPS | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-Q2 | - | n/a | 1.59 | n/a |
| 2017-Q3 | - | n/a | 2.08 | n/a |
| 2017-Q4 | 2018-03-07 | 1.47 | 1.59 | 8.2% |
| 2018-Q1 | 2018-03-07 | 1.45 | 1.42 | -2.1% |
| 2018-Q2 | 2018-05-31 | 1.68 | 1.7 | 1.2% |
| 2018-Q3 | 2018-10-04 | 2.34 | 2.36 | 0.9% |
| 2018-Q4 | 2018-12-13 | 1.62 | 1.61 | -0.6% |
| 2019-Q1 | 2019-03-07 | 1.67 | 2.01 | 20.4% |
| 2019-Q2 | - | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 2019-Q3 | - | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Annual financial results
Compared to 2017, last anual sales report draw a cool gain of 9.73% to $141,576.00 million USD. When comparing 2018 vs 2017, in contrast, profit margin (that is, the net income divided by revenues) remained steady a 0.14% to 2.21%. To have an up to date view of the financial situation of Costco Wholesale, we have calculated the trailing twelve month (TTM) sales and income figures. TTM values are the sum of the last 4 quarters and aproximate to an annual fiscal report ending in 2019-Q1 that can be compared to 2018 fiscal year results. Annual Costco Wholesale TTM sales up to February 2019 were $147,237.00 and earnings were $3,449.00 M dollars. If we compare this TTM figures with the last reported annuality, we can review Costco Wholesale business evolution since August 2018: Annual sales up to February, compared to lastest yearly report, stepped up a nice 4.00%. In contrary, profit margin (net income/revenues) stayed steady at 2.21%.| Year | Sales | YoY | Income/(margin) | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | $105,160 M | - | $2,040 M1.9% | - |
| 2014 | $112,640 M | 7.11% | $2,060 M1.8% | 0.98% |
| 2015 | $116,199 M | 3.16% | $2,377 M2.0% | 15.39% |
| 2016 | $118,719 M | 2.17% | $2,350 M2.0% | -1.14% |
| 2017 | $129,025 M | 8.68% | $2,679 M2.1% | 14.00% |
| 2018 | $141,576 M | 9.73% | $3,134 M2.2% | 16.98% |
| TTM | $147,237 M | 4.00% | $3,449 M2.3% | 10.05% |
Quarterly financial results
Costco Wholesale reported $35,396.00 million in revenues for 2019-Q1, a 0.93% improvement compared to previous quarter. Reported quarter earnings marked $889.00 M with a profit margin of 2.51%. Profit margin stayed steady a 0.32% compared to previous quarter when profit margin was 2.19%. When comparing turnover to same quarter last year, Costco Wholesale sales marked a great increase and rose a 7.28%.| Quarter | Sales1 | QoQ2 | Income1/(margin) | QoQ2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-Q2 | $28,860 M | - | $700 M2.4% | - |
| 2017-Q3 | $42,300 M | 46.57% | $919 M2.2% | 31.29% |
| 2017-Q4 | $31,809 M | -24.80% | $640 M2.0% | -30.36% |
| 2018-Q1 | $32,995 M | 3.73% | $701 M2.1% | 9.53% |
| 2018-Q2 | $32,361 M | -1.92% | $750 M2.3% | 6.99% |
| 2018-Q3 | $44,411 M | 37.24% | $1,043 M2.3% | 39.07% |
| 2018-Q4 | $35,069 M | -21.04% | $767 M2.2% | -26.46% |
| 2019-Q1 | $35,396 M | 0.93% | $889 M2.5% | 15.91% |
Costco Wholesale ownership
When you are planning to invest in shares of a company, it's always worth to overview its ownership structure.Costco Wholesale shares owned by insiders (that is, founders, CEO, CTO, main executives or other management staff) currently counts a 0.23% of all shares.
In case of Costco Wholesale stock, 71.71% of its shares are held by institutions (mutual funds, pension funds, big banks and other large financial institutions). Bearish positions for COST stock account 0.00%, no big difference from last month.
The following table compares ownership indicators for other stocks related to Costco Wholesale:
| COST | |
|---|---|
| Market cap | $125.6 B |
| Total shares | 441.6 M |
| Float shares | 439.0 M |
| - Institutional holdings (%) | 71.7% |
| - Insider holdings (%) | 0.2% |
| Shares in short selling | 0.0% |
Costco summary
| Friday, March 27th, 2020 | |
|---|---|
| Open | $287.13 |
| Close | $284.33 |
| Day range | $283.33 - $293.49 |
| Previous close | $292.30 |
| Session gain | -2.73% |
| Average true range | $17.42 |
| 50d mov avg | $305.39 |
| 100d mov avg | $301.11 |
| 200d mov avg | $291.22 |
| Daily pattern | lb11a |
| Weekly pattern | |
Costco Wholesale performance
Stocks performance is always measured in comparision to the market or competitors and related stocks in the same industry. In the following table, we compare Costco Wholesale performance to :| Stock | 3m | 6m | 12m |
|---|---|---|---|
| COSTCostco Wholesale | -3.12% | -0.14% | 18.51% |
Costco Wholesale competitors
Unfortunately, we could not find any public company that could be defined as Costco Wholesale competitor. This doesn't mean Costco Wholesale does not have any competitor in the market, it's just we could not detected it.Latest Costco stock news
- InvestorPlaceCostco Wholesale Is the Real Walmart KillerSeptember 11, 2018
- InvestorPlaceThe Biggest Reason Costco Stock Is a BuyAugust 21, 2018
- CNN MoneyHow Costco thrives in the Amazon eraAugust 21, 2018
- InvestorPlaceShould Charlie Munger Buy More Costco Stock?August 9, 2018
- Seeking AlphaThe No. 1 Reason To Buy Costco StockJuly 25, 2018