Costco's Sales Momentum Builds: What It Means for the Holiday Season

Costco Wholesale Corporation’s COST net sales grew 8.3% over the first nine weeks of fiscal 2026, reaching $48.33 billion, reflecting consistent shopper engagement and setting an optimistic tone for the holiday season. October’s performance showed an 8.6% increase in sales, driven by solid total comparable sales gains of 6.6%. The United States remained the main contributor with a 6.6% rise in comparable sales, while Canada and other international markets grew 6.3% and 7.2%, respectively.

Digitally enabled sales surged 21.6% during the nine weeks ended Nov. 2, 2025. This growth indicates that Costco has effectively captured the ongoing shift toward e-commerce and is not solely dependent on warehouse traffic. The company’s ability to leverage bulk purchasing and maintain an efficient supply chain allows it to offer competitive pricing.

Although last year’s October sales were negatively impacted by pull-forward activity related to Hurricane Helene and port strikes in September, current growth appears more organic, with stable underlying demand. This paints a promising outlook for a strong holiday quarter, assuming inflationary pressures and shifts in consumer spending patterns do not derail progress.

As the quarter progresses, focus will shift to basket sizes and category mix as consumers prioritize essentials and select discretionary items. The October and early-quarter sales data provide a positive outlook, as Costco enters the holiday season with strong momentum and a loyal customer base.

What the Latest Metrics Say About Costco

Costco, which competes with Dollar General Corporation DG and Target Corporation TGT, has seen its share decline 1.1% in the past year against the industry’s growth of 3.4%. While shares of Dollar General have rallied 30.1%, Target has dropped 40.5% in the aforementioned period.
 

From a valuation standpoint, Costco's forward 12-month price-to-earnings ratio stands at 45.43, higher than the industry’s ratio of 29.83. COST carries a Value Score of D. Costco is trading at a premium to Target (with a forward 12-month P/E ratio of 11.49) and Dollar General (15.19). 
 

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Costco’s current financial-year sales and earnings per share implies year-over-year growth of 7.7% and 11%, respectively.

Costco currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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