Does Costco Deserve More Credit for Q4?

By Chris Lange Updated Jan 30, 3:03PM EST · Published Oct 4, 9:40AM EDT

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Does Costco Deserve More Credit for Q4? — © jejim / iStock

When Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST | COST Price Prediction) released its fiscal fourth-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Thursday, the membership club giant said that it had $2.47 in earnings per share (EPS) and $47.50 billion in revenue. The consensus estimates had called for $2.54 in EPS and $47.57 billion in revenue, and in the same period of last year it said it had EPS of $2.36 on $44.41 billion in revenue.

During the latest quarter, net sales increased 7.0% year over year while membership fees increased 5.3%.

Comparable sales increased 5.1% on a companywide basis, driven by: U.S. comparable sales increasing 6.2%; Canada comparable sales increasing 2.6%; other international comparable sales increasing 1.9%; and e-commerce comparable sales increased 19.8%.

This year’s fourth quarter was negatively affected by a $123 million pretax reserve to SG&A ($96 million after tax), or 22 cents per diluted share, related to a product tax assessment.

Costco currently operates 783 warehouses, including 544 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 100 in Canada, 39 in Mexico, 29 in the United Kingdom, 26 in Japan, 16 in Korea, 13 in Taiwan, 11 in Australia, two in Spain, one in France, one in Iceland and one in China. Costco also operates e-commerce websites in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Korea and Taiwan.

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The company offered no guidance for the fiscal first quarter. However, consensus estimates call for $1.71 in EPS and $37.37 billion in revenue.

Excluding Friday’s move, Costco had outperformed the broad markets, with the stock up about 42% year to date. In the past 52 weeks, the stock was up 22%.

Shares of Costco traded down about 1.5% early Friday to $284.64, in a 52-week range of $189.51 to $307.34. The consensus price target is $292.50.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.