Retail

What to Expect When Costco Reports After the Close

Chris Lange

Published: March 7, 2019 11:15 am

Last Updated: March 13, 2020 10:15 pm

Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) is scheduled to release its fiscal second-quarter financial results after the markets close on Thursday. Consensus estimates are calling for $1.69 in earnings per share (EPS) and $35.67 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had $1.59 in EPS and $32.99 billion in revenue.

In the prior quarter, total company comparable sales, excluding foreign exchange and gasoline prices, increased 7.5%. This consisted of an 8.3% increase in comparable sales in the United States and a 5.5% increase in Canada’s comparable sales.

At the same time, e-commerce comparable sales totaled 32.3% for the quarter, while adjusted comparable sales only increased 26.2%.

In terms of number of members, at first quarter’s end, Gold Star was 41.3 million, which compares to 12 weeks earlier of 40.7 million, and Business Primary was 7.6 million. Business add-ons stayed at 3.3 million. Overall, Costco ended the first quarter at 52.2 million members.

Excluding Thursday’s move, Costco had underperformed the broad markets, with its stock up only about 8% year to date. In the past 52 weeks, the stock was up 14.5%.

A few analysts weighed in on Costco ahead of the report:

• Telsey Advisory Group has an Outperform rating.
• Wells Fargo has a Hold rating.
• Barclays has a Hold rating and a $225 target.
• Argus has a Buy rating with a $245 price target.
• RBC has an Outperform rating and a $247 price target.
• BMO Capital Markets has a Buy rating and a $258 target.

Shares of Costco were last seen down about 1% at $217.74, in a 52-week range of $180.83 to $245.16. The consensus price target is $236.61.

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