Costco (COST 0.51%) was founded in 1983 by Jim Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman. However, its roots go back to 1976, when Sol Price opened the first Price Club in San Diego. Price Club was a pioneering warehouse club concept, initially targeting small businesses. Sol Price, inspired by his previous experience with FedMart, a member-only discount store, opened the first Price Club in San Diego. This marked the beginning of the warehouse club concept, selling bulk items at discounted prices to small business members.


Jim Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman, who had worked with Sol Price at FedMart and Price Club, decided to launch their own warehouse club, Costco Wholesale, in Seattle. In 1993, Price Club and Costco Wholesale merged, becoming PriceCostco, which later changed its name to Costco Wholesale Corporation. Today, Costco's core business model is based on charging an annual membership fee for access to its warehouse stores and online platform. This fee is the significant driver of the company’s consistent profitability.

Costco sells a wide variety of products, including groceries, electronics, and household items, often at discounted prices. While it generates revenue from merchandise sales, it prioritizes low prices and high volume, resulting in smaller profit margins on each item. Costco's ability to purchase large quantities of goods allows it to negotiate lower prices with suppliers, which it then passes on to its members. This helps them attract customers and keep membership fees competitive.

Costco's pricing strategy is focused on offering the lowest possible prices, even if it means accepting lower profit margins on individual items. This attracts customers and encourages them to buy in bulk, increasing sales volume. Costco enjoys high customer loyalty, with a membership renewal rate of around 90%, indicating that many members find the value of the membership to be worth the cost. This loyalty contributes to stable membership revenue and helps drive sales volume.

Who is the owner?

Who is the owner of Costco?

Costco is a publicly traded company that is not owned by a single person or entity. It is owned by its shareholders, including a mix of institutional and retail investors. A large portion of Costco's stock is held by institutional investors, such as mutual funds, pension funds, and investment companies. These institutions often manage large amounts of assets on behalf of others.

Largest shareholders

Who are the largest shareholders?

Currently, 72.26% of Costco shares are held by institutional investors. Just 0.20% of shares are held by company insiders.

Shareholder

An individual or entity that owns a portion of a company's stock, entitling them to a share of its profits and assets.

Individuals

The top five largest individual shareholders of Costco are:

  1. W. Craig Jelinek: Served as chief executive officer of Costco from 2012 until his retirement in 2023. Jelinek joined Costco in 1984, initially working as a warehouse manager. He owns 356,409 shares of Costco.
  2. Hamilton E. James: Current chairman of the board and director of the company since August 1988. He served as the lead independent director from 2005 until August 2017, when he became the non-executive chairman of the board. In addition to serving as the chairman of his family investment firm, Jefferson River Capital, he previously worked in numerous roles at Blackstone (BX -0.03%) as executive vice chairman, president, and chief operating officer. He owns 56,403 shares of Costco.
  3. Ron M. Vachris: CEO of Costco. Vachris has served as
    a director of the company since February 2022, and as chief executive officer and president since January 2024. He has served in a wide variety of roles at Costco through the years. He was Costco's president and chief operating officer from February 2022 to January 2024, executive vice president of merchandising from June 2016 to January 2022, senior vice president of real estate development from August 2015 to June 2016, and senior vice president, general manager of the Northwest region, from 2010 to July 2015. He owns 44,677 shares of Costco.
  4. Richard A. Galanti: Former chief financial officer of Costco. Galanti served in the role for more than forty years, before announcing his intention to retire in 2024. He remained with Costco, serving in an advisory role to assist the incoming CFO until January 2025. He owns 35,126 shares of Costco.
  5. Jeffrey S. Raikes: Serves as director at Costco and is known for his tenure at Microsoft (MSFT -0.64%) as well as his role as former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Raikes has been a director of Costco since December 2008. He owns 30,784 shares of Costco.

Institutional investors

The top five largest institutional shareholders of Costco are as follows:

  1. Vanguard Group Inc.: The Vanguard Group is a leading global asset management company that primarily offers investment management and advisory services to individuals, institutions, and financial professionals. It is known for a broad range of investment products, including mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and its focus on providing low-cost, high-quality investments. The Vanguard Group controls a 9.5% stake in Costco, or 42.2 million shares, a stake worth about $41.97 billion.
  2. BlackRock Inc. (BLK -0.52%): BlackRock is a global asset management company and a fiduciary to its clients, offering a wide range of investment solutions and risk management services. It manages assets on behalf of various institutions and individuals, including pensions, educational organizations, insurance companies, and governments. BlackRock's services encompass investment management, advisory, and risk management. The company owns 34.76 million shares of Costco, a 7.83% stake in the business valued at $34.57 billion.
  3. State Street Corporation (STT 0.32%): State Street is a global financial services company with a primary focus on serving institutional investors. It provides a range of services, including investment management, investment servicing, and markets and financing. State Street is a leader in custody, fund administration, and other related services for institutional investors, including asset managers, asset owners, and insurance companies. The company owns a 4.08% stake in Costco, or 18.09 million shares. Its stake is valued at approximately $17.99 billion.
  4. Geode Capital Management, LLC: Geode Capital Management is a global systematic investment manager that provides institutional investors with a variety of investment solutions. It focuses on designing and implementing core beta exposures across a range of equity and niche asset classes, leveraging technology and a disciplined, repeatable investment process to manage assets and deliver risk-adjusted performance. The firm controls a 2.2% stake in Costco, or 9.74 million shares, a stake worth about $9.69 billion.
  5. Morgan Stanley (MS 0.03%) Morgan Stanley is a large global financial services firm that offers a wide range of services to help clients raise, manage, and distribute capital. Key services include advising companies on major financial transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, initial public offerings (IPOs), and debt offerings, and facilitating the buying and selling of securities for institutional clients, including hedge funds and other large investors. Morgan Stanley manages assets for institutions and individuals, offering a range of investment strategies across various asset classes. The company owns a 2.16% stake in Costco, or 9.57 million shares, valued at $9.52 billion.

Board of directors

Who is on the board of directors for Costco?

There are currently nine individuals serving on the board of directors for Costco. These individuals are as follows:

  1. Hamilton E. James: Chairman of the board.
  2. Susan Decker: Director. Susan L. Decker has served as a director of the company since October 2004. She is chief executive officer and founder of campus community platform Raftr, Inc., and previously served in multiple management roles at Yahoo! Inc., including president, executive vice president, and CFO. She is a director of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)(BRK:B) and Vail Resorts. (MTN 0.76%), among numerous companies. Previous director roles include Intel Corporation (INTC -2.0%) and Pixar. She owns 12,078 shares of Costco.
  3. Kenneth D. Denman: Denman has been a director of the company since March 2017. He has served as a general partner at Sway Ventures, a venture capital firm, since March 2017. Previous roles include president and CEO of Emotient, Inc., which was acquired by Apple (AAPL 2.22%) in 2016; CEO of Openwave Systems; and chairman and CEO of iPass, Inc. He is also a member of the board of directors of Motorola Solutions (MSI 0.37%). He owns 6,223 shares of Costco.
  4. Helena Buonanno Foulkes: She has been a director of the company since August 2023. She previously served as CEO and member of the board of directors of Hudson's Bay Company from February 2018 to March 2020 and in numerous leadership roles at CVS Health (CVS -0.4%) between 2011 and 2018. Foulkes is also a member of the board of directors of Skillsoft. (SKIL -3.72%). She owns 840 shares of Costco.
  5. Sally Jewell: She has been a director since January 2020. She served as the interim chief executive officer of The Nature Conservancy from June 2019 until May 2020, and previously served as U.S. Interior secretary under President Obama from 2013-17. Prior to that, she was CEO of Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI), from 2005-13, COO from 2005, and a board member from 1996 to 2013. She also worked in commercial banking for 19 years. She owns 3,327 shares of Costco.
  6. Jeff Raikes: Director.
  7. John W. Stanton: A prominent figure in the wireless telecommunications industry, he has served as a director since October 2015. Stanton is also the chairman of Trilogy International Partners, Inc. and Trilogy Equity Partners. He was previously the chairman and CEO of Western Wireless Corporation and T-Mobile USA (TMUS 0.18%). He is currently a director of Trilogy International Partners and Microsoft and was previously a director of Columbia Sportswear Company (COLM 0.55%). He owns 24,226 shares of Costco.
  8. Ron Vachris: President, CEO, and director.
  9. Maggie Wilderotter: She has been a director of the company since October 2015 and serves as senior advisor for numerous private equity venture firms. She served as chief executive officer and chair of the Grand Reserve Inn from December 2016 to June 2023 and was the interim CEO of DocuSign. (DOCU -0.16%) from June through October 2022. She previously served as the executive chairman of Frontier Communications (FYBR -0.03%) from April 2015 until April 2016, CEO from 2004-15, and chair of the board from December 2005. Prior to that, she served as senior vice president of Microsoft from 2002 to 04. She owns 12,671 shares of Costco.

Board of Directors

A group of elected individuals responsible for overseeing the activities of a company and representing shareholders.

How to invest

How to invest in Costco

If you want to buy stock in Costco, it only takes a few moments to do so. You can easily buy shares through your brokerage account. If you don’t have one open yet, opening a brokerage account online takes just a few minutes through most major financial institutions. You'll need to provide a few pieces of information, like your name, email, address, date of birth, and Social Security number.

When choosing a brokerage account, you can consider your financial goals, risk tolerance, and the types of investments you want to make. You will want to compare fees, commissions, and trading platforms. You should also consider your investment options on a given platform and the quality of the customer service that the brokerage provides. Once you open the account, you'll need to fund it to start trading.

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Consider your investment goals and how much of your portfolio you want to allocate to shares of the stock. Diversifying your investment capital across quality stocks, whether food stocks, consumer discretionary stocks, or otherwise, that represent numerous industries, can help you ensure you aren’t overly concentrated while enabling you to benefit from numerous sources of growth in a wide range of markets. Take time to look through investor presentations and study the company’s financials, risks, competitive advantage, revenue/profit model, and other key elements of Costco’s business before you put your money to work.

Decide whether you want to place a market order or a limit order for Costco stock. A market order means you buy stock at the current price. A limit order means you buy at a specified price. Your final step is to place an order once you've decided to invest your money. You'll need to enter the stock ticker for Costco, COST. Then, you'll indicate either the number of shares you're buying or the dollar value you want to buy before you press the buy button.

FAQ

Who owns Costco: FAQ

Who actually owns Costco?

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Costco is a publicly traded company, not owned by a single entity, but rather by its shareholders. This means that anyone can invest in the company by buying shares of stock. There is no single individual or entity that owns the majority of Costco. Large investment firms that manage money on behalf of others, like pension funds or mutual funds, are the largest shareholders, owning a significant portion of Costco's stock.

Who is the parent company of Costco?

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Costco does not have a parent company. Costco Wholesale Corporation is a publicly traded company.

3. Who is the largest shareholder of Costco?

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The largest shareholder of Costco is The Vanguard Group. It holds approximately 9.5% of Costco's outstanding shares. BlackRock is the second-largest shareholder, owning about 7.8%.

4. Does Warren Buffett own Costco?

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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway does not currently own Costco. Berkshire Hathaway had a significant stake in Costco, which it sold off in 2020.

Rachel Warren has positions in Apple. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Blackstone, Costco Wholesale, Docusign, Intel, Microsoft, and Vail Resorts. The Motley Fool recommends CVS Health and T-Mobile US and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft, short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft, and short May 2025 $30 calls on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.