Costco stock: buy or sell?
Updated on:
July 16th, 2019
5
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. That's why is so important to choose your own trading plan that fits your character as inversor. There are thousands of trading strategies for you to choose, but at Stocks2.com we prefer those that are simple but successful.These 2 buy setups match with Costco Wholesale stock right now:
| Buy setup | Elegible |
|---|---|
| New all-time high | Yes |
| New 52 week high | Yes |
| Price crossing up 200d MA | No |
| 100d MA crossing up 200d MA | No |
Is Costco Wholesale stock a buy?
Banks and financial institutions publish stock ratings everyday.
At Stocks2.com, we detected 15 ratings published for COST stock in the last 30 days. The general sentiment of these ratings is bullish for COST stock, with 9 positive ratings.| Date | Analyst / Broker | Previous rating | Current rating |
| 2019-7-11 | Stifel Nicolaus | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-7-11 | Robert W. Baird | n/a | Outperform |
| 2019-7-11 | Nomura | n/a | Neutral |
| 2019-7-11 | Loop Capital | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-7-11 | Goldman Sachs Group | Buy | Buy |
| 2019-7-10 | Oppenheimer | n/a | n/a |
| 2019-6-3 | Morgan Stanley | n/a | Equal Weight |
| 2019-6-28 | Tigress Financial | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-6-17 | Loop Capital | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-5-9 | Wells Fargo & Co | n/a | Market Perform |
| 2019-5-31 | Citigroup | n/a | Neutral |
| 2019-4-9 | Telsey Advisory Group | Outperform | Outperform |
| 2019-4-17 | Oppenheimer | Outperform | Outperform |
| 2019-4-1 | Loop Capital | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-4-1 | Citigroup | Neutral | Neutral |
Costco stock analysis
Daily outlook
After climbing to all-time highs several times in past weeks, Costco Wholesale remained constant 0.02% to $280.65.
Costco Wholesale remained steady 0.02% to $280.65 after topping to all time highs today. Since May when SMA100d and SMA200d crossed up, COST price gained $32.30 per share (13.01%). Since price and SMA200d lines crossed up on March, COST climbed $64.44 (29.80%). Today, COST hit a new all time high, pushing higher than yesterday tops. Check different trading setups that use ATHs as triggers.
Weekly outlook
Costco Wholesale remained constant 0.43% this week and set a new all time high at $281.37. Counting this, it's been 3 green weeks in a row, gaining $16.39 or 6.16%. Early June COST skyrocketed an amazing 6.42% in just one week.
Since early May when SMA20w and SMA40w crossed up, COST price gained $36.69 per share (15.04%). Since price and SMA40w lines crossed up late February, COST climbed $64.94 (30.11%).
Costco stock price history
Costco stock went public on July 9th, 1986 with a price of $7.841. Since then, COST stock grew a 3,479.70%, with a yearly average of 105.40%. If you had invested $1,000 in Costco stock in 1986, it would worth $34,797.00 today.
1: Adjusted price after possible price splits or reverse-splits.
Costco stock historical price chart
COST stock reached all-time highs today with a price of $281.37.
Costco stock price target is $268.90
Predicting the price evolution of a stock or any financial instrument in a reliable and repeatable way is probably impossible. However, financial institutions invest time and resources to provide the most accurated estimations to help investors to make their decisions. The accuracy of these stock price predictions is not very high, and you should not blindly believe and make decisions only based on what this ratings or price target predictions say. For the last 30 days we found 14 price predictions for COST stock:| Date | Analyst / Broker | Action | Previous target | Current target | Diff |
| 2019-7-11 | Stifel Nicolaus | Raises Target | $261.00 | $289.00 | 10.7% |
| 2019-7-11 | Robert W. Baird | Raises Target | $270.00 | $290.00 | 7.4% |
| 2019-7-11 | Nomura | Raises Target | $235.00 | $256.00 | 8.9% |
| 2019-7-11 | Loop Capital | Raises Target | n/a | $300.00 | - |
| 2019-7-11 | Goldman Sachs Group | Initiates | n/a | $290.00 | - |
| 2019-7-10 | Oppenheimer | Raises Target | $270.00 | $295.00 | 9.3% |
| 2019-6-3 | Morgan Stanley | Raises Target | $220.00 | $230.00 | 4.5% |
| 2019-6-17 | Loop Capital | Raises Target | n/a | $290.00 | - |
| 2019-5-9 | Wells Fargo & Co | Reiterates | $225.00 | $240.00 | 6.7% |
| 2019-5-31 | Citigroup | Lowers Target | $243.00 | $241.00 | -0.8% |
| 2019-4-9 | Telsey Advisory Group | Reiterates | $250.00 | $265.00 | 6% |
| 2019-4-17 | Oppenheimer | Raises Target | $245.00 | $270.00 | 10.2% |
| 2019-4-1 | Loop Capital | Reiterates | $260.00 | $265.00 | 1.9% |
| 2019-4-1 | Citigroup | Raises Target | $242.00 | $243.00 | 0.4% |
| (in average) | $247.40 | $268.90 | 9.0% |
Financials and fundamental analysis
Earnings date and Earnings per Share
Costco Wholesale reported wonderful results for 2019-Q1 on March. Costco Wholesale skyrocketed Earnings per Share (EPS) by 20.40%, beating analysts estimates of $1.67. 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 revenues report draw an impressive growth of 9.73% to $141,576.00 million dollars. When comparing 2018 vs 2017, however, profit margin (that is, the net income divided by revenues) stayed constant a 0.14% to 2.21%. To have an updated picture 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 income was $3,449.00 M dollars. When comparing this TTM figures with the last reported annuality, we can review Costco Wholesale business evolution since August 2018: Annual revenues up to February, compared to lastest yearly report, stepped up a good 4.00%. On the other hand, profit margin (net income/sales) 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 M in revenues for 2019-Q1, a 0.93% up compared to previous quarter. Reported quarter earnings marked $889.00 million 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 sales to same quarter last year, Costco Wholesale sales marked a very good increase and escalated 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 a company, it's always worth to check its ownership structure.Costco Wholesale shares owned by insiders (that is, founders, CEO, CTO, main executives or other management staff) currently counts a 0.52% of all shares.
In case of Costco Wholesale stock, 73.52% 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 | BIG | DG | DLTR | FIVE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $123.4 B | $945.6 M | $36.7 B | $26.7 B | $6.9 B |
| Total shares | 439.8 M | 39.9 M | 258.3 M | 237.6 M | 55.9 M |
| Float shares | 433.2 M | 38.5 M | 244.9 M | 234.1 M | 54.7 M |
| - Institutional holdings (%) | 73.5% | 110.1% | 104.6% | 96.6% | 96.9% |
| - Insider holdings (%) | 0.5% | 1.7% | 0.1% | 2.8% | 2.3% |
| Shares in short selling | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Costco summary
| Tuesday, July 16th, 2019 | |
|---|---|
| Open | $281.00 |
| Close | $280.65 |
| Day range | $279.80 - $281.37 |
| Previous close | $280.58 |
| Session gain | 0.02% |
| Average true range | $3.18 |
| 50d mov avg | $256.55 |
| 100d mov avg | $246.24 |
| 200d mov avg | $232.07 |
| Daily pattern | |
| Weekly pattern | |
Costco Wholesale performance
Stocks performance is always measured in comparision to the market or competitors and related stocks in the same industry. For Costco Wholesale, the comparison is made against Big Lots, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Five Below, PriceSmart, Target and Walmart.| Stock | 3m | 6m | 12m |
|---|---|---|---|
| COSTCostco Wholesale | 14.48% | 32.11% | 29.65% |
| BIGBig Lots | -38.70% | -24.23% | -43.33% |
| DGDollar General | 15.41% | 25.93% | 46.42% |
| DLTRDollar Tree | 3.36% | 18.66% | 29.94% |
| FIVEFive Below | -13.17% | 0.26% | 19.49% |
| PSMTPriceSmart | 1.94% | -6.35% | -22.88% |
| TGTTarget | 5.19% | 25.02% | 15.47% |
| WMTWalmart | 12.03% | 18.92% | 33.46% |
Costco Wholesale competitors
One check before investing in any stock is to have a look a list of its competitors, in this case for Costco Wholesale. We selected 7 companies as Costco Wholesale competitors as they are in the same industry or have similar market objectives.- Big Lots (BIG)
- Dollar General (DG)
- Dollar Tree (DLTR)
- Five Below (FIVE)
- PriceSmart (PSMT)
- Target (TGT)
- Walmart (WMT)
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