SAGE

Sage Capital Advisors, LLC reduced its position in Costco Wholesale Corporation(COST -0.00%), selling 3,424 shares in Q3 2025. The estimated trade value was $3.28 million, based on quarterly average pricing for the period ended September 30, 2025, according to an SEC filing dated October 7, 2025.

What happened

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission dated October 07, 2025, Sage Capital Advisors, LLC sold 3,424 shares of Costco in Q3 2025. The transaction was valued at an estimated $3.28 million. Following the trade, the fund held 6,371 shares valued at $5.90 million as of September 30, 2025.

What else to know

The fund’s position in Costco decreased from 2.3937% to 1.4023% of reportable AUM as of 2025-09-30 following the sale.

Top holdings after the filing:

• NASDAQ:AAPL: $37.26 million (8.9% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
• NASDAQ:MSFT: $21.92 million (5.2% of AUM) as of 2025-09-30
• NASDAQ:NVDA: $19.31 million (4.6% of AUM) as of 2025-09-30
• NASDAQ:GOOGL: $18.69 million (4.4% of AUM) as of 2025-09-30
• NASDAQ:AMZN: $16.32 million (3.9% of AUM) as of 2025-09-30

As of October 6, 2025, shares of Costco were priced at $910.94, up 4.3% over the past year, underperforming the S&P 500 by 13.7 percentage points

Company Overview

Company Snapshot

Offers a broad assortment of branded and private-label merchandise, including groceries, appliances, electronics, apparel, and specialty services such as pharmacies, optical centers, and fuel stations.

Operates a membership-based warehouse model

Operates in North America, Asia, Europe, and Australia

As of September 2025, the company operated 914 membership warehouses worldwide

Foolish take

Sage Capital Advisors sold off about 34% of its Costco holdings during Q3 2025, totaling about $3.28 million, dropping Costco from about 2.4% of its AUM to about 1.4%. This wasn’t a significant drop in its overall portfolio composition, even if it did represent a pretty significant sell-off of its Costco stock holdings.

Although Costco remains a strong retail company, investors have long worried it has been getting overvalued and has less room to grow in valuation in the near-term. For example, over the last year, Costco share values only increased by 4.3%, significantly underperforming the market. The company also had a very strong Q3, despite a resulting drop in its stock price.

Costco remains a desirable company for many investors, even if institutional investors like Sage Capital Advisors are selling significant shares. This may be a regular part of its portfolio management, and nothing to worry about, or it may have been taking gains at one of the near-$1000 peaks that occurred during the quarter. 

Either way, this looks more like a rebalancing move and less like a statement about Costco.

Glossary

AUM: Assets Under Management – The total market value of investments managed by a fund or firm.
Reportable AUM: The portion of a fund’s assets required to be disclosed in regulatory filings, often U.S. equities.
Top holdings: The largest individual investments in a fund, typically ranked by market value or portfolio percentage.
Membership-based warehouse model: A retail structure where customers pay annual fees to access bulk goods at discounted prices.
Dividend Yield: Annual dividends per share divided by share price, shown as a percentage.
TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.

On October 7, 2025, Sage Capital Advisors, LLC disclosed a buy of Verizon(VZ -0.01%) shares, with an estimated transaction value of $4.67 million based on quarterly average pricing.

What happened

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission dated October 7, 2025, the firm increased its position in Verizon by 107,798 shares during the quarter. The estimated value of shares added was $4.67 million, bringing the fund’s total Verizon stake to 246,445 shares, worth $10.83 million as of September 30, 2025.

What else to know

The increased Verizon position now accounts for 2.6% of the fund’s reportable equity holdings

Top holdings after the filing:

• NASDAQ:AAPL: $37.26 million (8.9% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
• NASDAQ:MSFT: $21.92 million (5.2% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
• NASDAQ:NVDA: $19.31 million (4.6% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
• NASDAQ:GOOGL: $18.69 million (4.4% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
• NASDAQ:AMZN: $16.32 million (3.9% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025

As of October 6, 2025, Verizon shares were priced at $41.44, down 5.47% over the past year and have underperformed the S&P 500 by 18.9 percentage points.

Company Overview

Company Snapshot

Offers wireless and wireline communications, internet access, video, and a range of network solutions for consumers, businesses, and government clients.

Generates revenue through subscription-based service plans, equipment sales, and network access fees, leveraging a nationwide infrastructure.

Serves individual consumers, enterprises, and public sector organizations across the United States and internationally.

Verizon is a leading provider of communications and technology services, operating at national and global scale.

Foolish take

To start, let’s admit what Verizon stock is — and what it is not. In short, Verizon is a stock for income-oriented investors, seeking a way to generate cash with the possibility of modest growth.

In that context, Verizon has done what one might expect. Its ample dividend, which yields 6.5%, provides plenty of income for investors that need it. Meanwhile, its total return — which combines its dividend yield with its stock price return — has lagged the S&P 500.

For example, over the last decade, Verizon stock has generated a total return compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.7%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 has generated a total return CAGR of 15.0% over that same period.

In other words, Verizon hasn’t kept pace with the broader market, but that’s not surprising given its business model and the challenges the company faces.

One of the biggest challenges for Verizon is its balance sheet. Specifically, it has over $166 billion in net debt, which acts as a drag on its ability to return value to shareholders. Verizon’s net debt has actually increased by 48% over the last decade, which makes it more difficult for the company to buy back shares, increase its dividend payment, or make strategic acquisitions.

The company’s high debt load is one reason why growth-oriented investors should look elsewhere. Simply put, Verizon isn’t going to be able to generate rapid growth. Rather, it will focus on generating cash, servicing its debt, and paying its generous dividend.

Therefore, Verizon remains a stock to consider, at least for income-seeking investors.

Glossary

13F AUM: The total value of assets under management reported in a fund’s quarterly SEC Form 13F filing.
Transaction value: The estimated dollar amount involved in a specific buy or sell of securities.
Stake: The total number of shares or percentage ownership a fund holds in a particular company.
Fund AUM: The overall market value of assets managed by an investment fund.
Top holdings: The largest investments in a fund’s portfolio, usually ranked by value.
Dividend yield: Annual dividend income expressed as a percentage of the stock’s current price.
Subscription-based service plans: Ongoing contracts where customers pay regularly for continued access to services.
Network access fees: Charges paid by customers or partners to use a company’s communication infrastructure.
Public sector organizations: Government agencies and entities that purchase goods or services.
TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.

Mercedes Bryce Morgan’s horror film “Bone Lake” announces itself with a startlingly cheeky opener and closes with a bloody gore-fest, the song “Sex and Violence” by U.K. punk outfit the Exploited spelling out the thesis of the film for us. It’s about the intertwining of sex and violence, you see. But what unfolds between these naughty, viscera-drenched bookends is less of a traditional horror film and more of a psychosexual thriller, like “Funny Games” played between two, young attractive couples, with a setup borrowed from “Barbarian.”

In the script by Joshua Friedlander, a double-booking of a secluded rental mansion becomes a double date when Will (Alex Roe) and Cin (Andra Nechita) stumble in on the intimate weekend vacay of Sage (Maddie Hasson) and Diego (Marco Pigossi). The couples decide to make the best of it and stay, promising to rock-paper-scissors for the house if anything gets “weird.”

And get weird it does. While Diego and Sage seemed perfectly happy on arrival, the sexy, uninhibited Will and Cin have a way of nosing out their insecurities, finding the cracks in their connection and weaseling their way in. Suddenly, their lackluster sex life is on trial, and Sage’s resentment about financially supporting Diego while he pursues his dream of writing a novel bubbles to the surface.

Like any weekend-goes-awry horror movie (e.g., “Speak No Evil”), the female half of the couple catches a bad vibe that her male partner dismisses, due to his vested interest in wanting to stay. For Diego, it’s the promise that Cin will share his writing with his favorite author, for whom she claims to work. They overlook the red flags, blow off their opportunities to leave and decide to go all in with this wanton pair, drinking, playing games, breaking into secret rooms and dodging sexual overtures from each of them.

Morgan and her cinematographer Nick Matthews make the location fun to look at, with a saturated color palette and clever camera movements. However, there are scenes where the film is frustratingly dim and underlit, even if it might be justified by the power going out during a storm.

While there’s a certain verve and style to the middle section, where Will and Cin draw in their prey and toy with them, the Grand Guignol climax bears no rhythm or suspense; it’s merely a bludgeoning of the audience with carnage — too much too late.

Other blunt instruments? Roe and Nechita, who don’t play their roles with any subtlety. Roe’s Will comes off as a dangerous himbo; Nechita’s Cin is an over-the-top minx in her seduction of both Diego and Sage. While Hasson’s Sage is a plausibly strident freelance journalist type, you wonder if she has much experience with female friendship, because Cin’s manipulation is so painfully obvious. Pigossi’s self-obsessed novelist, however, is perfectly pitched in his all-around obliviousness.

There’s a kernel of something fascinating at the center of “Bone Lake,” a melding of sex and violence into gestures that are familiar from true crime stories. But there’s not enough motivation baked into the big third-act twist, and the performances just aren’t strong enough to suggest anything deeper.

“Bone Lake” offers up an appealing surface but it’s ultimately too shallow to get you immersed.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.