Top Costco Shareholders

Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) over four decades has grown into a major warehouse retailer in the U.S. and abroad by offering low prices on large packages of name-brand products. It sells groceries, appliances, electronics, apparel and other items. The company opened its first Costco warehouse under co-founders Jim Sinegal and Jeff Brotman in 1983 in Seattle, eventually merging with Price Club 10 years later. After a short period operating as PriceCostco, the company returned to the name Costco in 1997. It has expanded dramatically since then. Costco has over 127 million members who purchase long-term memberships to gain access to roughly 860 Costco warehouse stores in the U.S., Asia, Europe, and Latin America, and to make online purchases.

In the trailing 12-month period to May 2024, Costco generated operating income of $8.5 billion on revenue of $248.8 billion. The company has a market capitalization of $345.2 billion.

The top individual insider shareholders of Costco are Craig Jelinek, Charles Munger, and Patrick Callans, and the top institutional shareholders are Vanguard Group Inc., BlackRock Inc., and State Street Corp.

Top 3 Individual Insider Shareholders

The shares owned by individual insider shareholders are those that are held through direct ownership. Shares mentioned in this section do not include shares held indirectly nor shares accessible through stock options. Company insiders must file an SEC Form 4 every time they buy or sell an amount of the company's stock that is deemed to be material.

Craig Jelinek

Craig Jelinek owns 391,535 shares of Costco, or about 0.09% of all outstanding shares. Jelinek stepped down as CEO in January 2024 and stayed in an advisory role until the Spring. Jelinek has been a director and president of Costco since 2010, and CEO since 2012. During Jelinek's nine years at the helm, Costco has achieved steady growth, including expanding its operations into China. Costco opened its first store in China in 2019 in Shanghai. Jelinek previously held executive positions at Costco in operations and merchandising starting 2004. Jelinek's early career was in warehouse operations after joining Costco in 1984.

Charles Munger

Charles Munger owned 187,180 shares of Costco, or about 0.04% of all outstanding shares. Munger was an independent director of the company since 1997. He was also vice chairman of the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B), and chairman of the board of directors of Daily Journal Corporation. He passed away in November 2023.

Patrick Callans

Patrick Callans owns 62,895 shares of Costco, or roughly 0.01% of all outstanding shares. Callans is executive vice president of Administration for Costco, a position he has held since January 2019. Prior to that appointment, Callans was senior vice president of Human Resources and Risk Management. He first joined Costco as corporate counsel in 1994.

Top 3 Institutional Shareholders

According to Whale Wisdom, nearly 2,300 13F filers held Costco stock as of the end of Q2 2021. About 99 of them included Costco in their top 10 holdings. Institutional shareholders own about 72.30% of outstanding Costco shares.

Vanguard Group Inc.

Vanguard Group owns 40.36 million shares of Costco, representing 9.1% of total shares outstanding, as of May 2024. The company is primarily a mutual fund and ETF management company with about $7.8 trillion in global assets under management (AUM), as of September 30, 2023. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) is one of the company's largest exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with about $1.1 trillion in AUM. Costco comprises 0.74% of VOO's holding, as of May 2024.

BlackRock Inc.

BlackRock owns 30.6 million shares of Costco, representing 6.9% of total shares outstanding, as of May 2024. The company is primarily a mutual fund and ETF management company with approximately $10 trillion in AUM. The iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) is one of BlackRock's largest ETFs with approximately $451 billion in AUM. Costco comprises 0.78% of IVV's holdings.

State Street Corp.

State Street owns 18.7 million shares of Costco, representing 4.21% of total shares outstanding, as of May 2024. The company is primarily a manager of mutual funds, ETFs and other assets with approximately $4.34 trillion in AUM. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) is one of State Street's largest ETFs with approximately $511 billion in AUM. Costco comprises 0.77% of SPY's holdings.