Costco (COST) closed the most recent trading day at $952.36, moving +1.35% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.6%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a loss of 1.23%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq decreased by 2.24%.
Heading into today, shares of the warehouse club operator had lost 4.8% over the past month, lagging the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 2.64% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.25%.
Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of Costco in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company is forecasted to report an EPS of $5.8, showcasing a 12.62% upward movement from the corresponding quarter of the prior year. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $85.83 billion, up 7.7% from the prior-year quarter.
COST's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $17.97 per share and revenue of $274.97 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +11.55% and +8.06%, respectively.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Costco. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. Consequently, upward revisions in estimates express analysts' positivity towards the business operations and its ability to generate profits.
Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To utilize this, we have created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that integrates these estimate changes and provides a functional rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.39% lower. Costco presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Looking at valuation, Costco is presently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 52.3. This expresses a premium compared to the average Forward P/E of 21.93 of its industry.
We can additionally observe that COST currently boasts a PEG ratio of 5.84. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. Retail - Discount Stores stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.61 based on yesterday's closing prices.
The Retail - Discount Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 169, positioning it in the bottom 32% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.
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Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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