Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) is scheduled to report its fiscal third-quarter financial results after the markets close on Wednesday. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters call for $1.22 in earnings per share (EPS) on $27.07 billion in revenue. In the same period of last year, the company posted EPS of $1.17 and revenue of $26.10 billion.
The company reported April same-store sales, including gasoline sales and foreign exchange effects, that were flat in the United States, up 2% in Canada and down 3% internationally. Globally, same-store sales were flat compared with April 2015. Excluding gasoline and currency exchange effects, U.S. sales rose 2%, Canadian sales rose 7% and international sales rose 1%.
On the same basis, worldwide same-stores sales in the quarter rose 3%. Net sales for the month totaled $8.98 billion, up 3% year over year. Retail Metrics had projected a same-store sales gain of 1.1% (up 4.3% excluding gasoline sales).
A few analysts weighed in on Costco ahead of the earnings report:
- RBC Capital reiterated its Outperform rating with a $169 price target.
- Piper Jaffray reiterated a Buy rating.
- Robert Baird reiterated a Buy rating.
- Sterne Agee CRT reiterated a Buy rating too.
- Deutsche Bank has a Buy rating with a $196 price target.
- Morgan Stanley reiterated an Overweight rating with a $165 price target.
- Jefferies reiterated a Hold rating with a $135 price target.
Costco has underperformed the broad markets year to date, with the stock down 11%. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock is actually up 1%.
Shares of Costco were trading at $144.24 ahead of the report. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $167.91 and a 52-week trading range of $117.03 to $169.73.
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