The most recent trading session ended with Costco (COST) standing at $908.13, reflecting a -0.91% shift from the previouse trading day's closing. The stock's change was less than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.23%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a loss of 0.91%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq increased by 0.1%.
Shares of the warehouse club operator have depreciated by 4.96% over the course of the past month, outperforming the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 11.71% and the S&P 500's loss of 12.13%.
The upcoming earnings release of Costco will be of great interest to investors. The company's earnings report is expected on May 29, 2025. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $4.22, signifying a 11.64% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $62.89 billion, reflecting a 7.48% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $17.94 per share and a revenue of $274.15 billion, demonstrating changes of +11.36% and +7.74%, respectively, from the preceding year.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Costco. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 0.49% fall in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. As of now, Costco holds a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, Costco is presently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 51.09. This signifies a premium in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 20.34 for its industry.
We can additionally observe that COST currently boasts a PEG ratio of 5.47. The PEG ratio is akin to the commonly utilized P/E ratio, but this measure also incorporates the company's anticipated earnings growth rate. COST's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.61 as of yesterday's close.
The Retail - Discount Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 156, placing it within the bottom 38% of over 250 industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
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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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