Ex-Dividend Alert: Costco Wholesale Boosted its Dividend By 12%; Will Trade Ex-Dividend on May 10, 2018

LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / May 09, 2018 / Active-Investors has a free review on Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) following the Company's announcement that it will begin trading ex-dividend on May 10, 2018. To capture the dividend payout, investors must purchase the stock a day prior to the ex-dividend date that is by latest at the end of the trading session on May 09, 2018. Active-Investors has initiated due-diligence on this dividend stock. Register with us for more free research including the one on COST:

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Dividend Declared

On April 24, 2018, Costco announced that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend on Costco common stock and approved a quarterly increase from $0.50 to $0.57 per share, or 12%. The dividend is payable May 25, 2018, to shareholders of record at the close of business on May 11, 2018.

Costco's indicated dividend represents a yield of 1.17% compared to the average dividend yield of 2.05% for the Services sector. The Company has raised dividend for fourteen years in a row.

Dividend Insight

Costco has a dividend payout ratio of 33.7%, which denotes that the Company spends approximately $0.34 for dividend distribution out of every $1.00 earned. The dividend payout ratio reflects how much amount a company is returning to shareholders versus how much money it is keeping on hand to reinvest in growth, to pay off debt, and/or to add to its cash reserves.

According to analysts' estimates, Costco is forecasted to report earnings of $7.71 per share for the next year, which is more than three times higher than the Company's annualized dividend of $2.28 per share.

As of February 18, 2018, Costco's cash and cash equivalents totaled $4.78 billion compared to $4.55 billion as on September 03, 2017. The Company's strong financial position indicates its ability to absorb any fluctuations in earnings and cash flow and to sustain the dividend distribution for a long period.

Recent Development for Costco

On April 11, 2018, Costco reported net sales of $12.92 billion for the month of March, the five weeks ended April 08, 2018, reflecting an increase of 10.9% from $11.65 billion last year. For the thirty-one weeks ended April 08, 2018, the Company reported net sales of $81.43 billion, an increase of 11.8% from $72.82 billion last year.

Costco's 2018 five-week March retail-month had one fewer shopping day versus last year due to the calendar shift of Easter. This negatively impacted total and comparable March sales by approximately 1% to 1.5%.

About Costco Wholesale Corp.

Costco currently operates 749 warehouses, including 519 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 98 in Canada, 38 in Mexico, 28 in the United Kingdom, 26 in Japan, 14 in Korea, 13 in Taiwan, 9 in Australia, 2 in Spain, 1 in Iceland, and 1 in France. Costco also operates electronic commerce web sites in the US, Canada, the UK, Mexico, Korea and Taiwan.

Stock Performance Snapshot

May 08, 2018 - At Tuesday's closing bell, Costco's stock was marginally up 0.74%, ending the trading session at $194.48.

Volume traded for the day: 1.90 million shares.

Stock performance in the last month – up 5.46%; previous three-month period – up 5.12%; past twelve-month period – up 12.65%; and year-to-date – up 4.49%

After yesterday's close, Costco's market cap was at $84.82 billion.

Price to Earnings (P/E) ratio was at 29.74.

The stock has a dividend yield of 1.17%.

The stock is part of the Services sector, categorized under the Discount, Variety Stores industry.

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