Piper Jaffray Reiterates Overweight on Costco Wholesale, Increases PT to $85

Piper Jaffray reiterated its Overweight rating on Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST). At the same time, Piper raised its price target from $84 to $85 ahead of Costco's quarterly earnings report.

In a research report published today, Piper states, "We are reiterating our OW rating and raising our price target slightly to $85 (from $84) ahead of COST's Q3 earnings announcement scheduled for Wednesday, May 25. We continue to remain positive on the stock and estimate a May comp of +12% to +13% based on what we believe to be strong traffic and ticket trends and tailwinds from gas and f/x. We also estimate that COST will report Q3 EPS of $0.77 vs. consensus of $0.77 and that the company continues to execute well."

On Monday, Costco closed the day at $82.64. Its shares added 0.38% to their value in today's pre-market trading and are currently standing at $82.95.