Costco expected to see another quarter of sales growth after hiking membership fees
09/25/2024 20:01
Costco is expected to report another bulk-sized quarter on Thursday after market close.
Costco (COST) is expected to report another bulk-sized quarter.
The wholesale giant will report its fiscal fourth quarter on Thursday after market close. Per Bloomberg consensus estimates, Wall Street expects revenue to grow 1.29% to $79.96 billion, while earnings per share will increase 12.2% year over year to $5.69.
"In the recent mixed discretionary backdrop, we believe Costco's merchandising efforts, including an attractive assortment of discounted gift cards, have contributed to a meaningful improvement in non-foods category trends lately," Oppenheimer analyst Rupesh Parikh wrote in a note to clients.
Costco's same-store sales are expected to be up 6.4%, while e-commerce is expected to jump 19.63%.
UBS analyst Michael Lasser wrote that the company is "clearly gaining market share" with consistent traffic growth and a "faster recovery in general merchandise" sales than its competition.
In August, Costco's foot traffic jumped 10.5%, per data analytics firm Placer.ai. The superstores and wholesale club sector saw a 4.9% increase in foot traffic.
Another tailwind for Costco: its first membership fee increase since June 2017.
Effective Sept. 1, its Gold Star membership received a $5 hike to $65, while Executive membership increased $10 to $130.
The change is expected to impact around 52 million memberships, a little over half of which are Executive memberships. It's expected to grow membership fee income by high single to low double digits.
For Q4, Wall Street expects membership fees to come in at $1.54 billion.
The earnings rundown:
Here's what Costco is expected to report in its Q4 earnings report, per Bloomberg consensus, compared to Q4 the year prior.
Net sales: $79.96 billion, compared to $78.94 billion
Adjusted EPS: $5.07, compared to $4.86
Total company comparable sales, excluding fuel: 6.40%, compared to 3.80%
US same-store sales growth: 5.96% versus 3.10%
Canada same-store sales growth: 7.35% versus 7.40%
Other international: 8.62% versus 4.40%
E-commerce growth: 19.63% versus -0.60%
Membership fees revenue: $1.54 billion versus $1.51 billion
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Brooke DiPalma is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @BrookeDiPalma or email her at [email protected].