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A Costco Wholesale store in Connecticut.
Lindsey Nicholsonp | Getty Images
Costco on Thursday beat Wall Street’s quarterly earnings and sales estimates, as it got a boost in part from higher membership fees.
Here is how the warehouse club did for the fiscal first quarter compared to what Wall Street expected, according to a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $4.04 vs. $3.79 expected
- Revenue: $62.15 billion vs. $62.08 billion expected
In the three-month period that ended Nov. 24, Costco’s net income rose to $1.80 billion, or $4.04 per share, from $1.59 billion, or $3.58 per share in the year-ago period. Revenue increased from $57.80 billion in the year-ago period.
Costco has benefited from its reputation for selling bulk items at better value, as U.S. households feel the cumulative effect of higher food and housing prices. The membership-based club also hiked its annual membership fee for the first time in about seven years. The quarterly results are the first Costco has reported since that fee increase took effect in September.
Costco’s membership fee revenue came in at $1.17 billion, compared to the $1.16 billion Wall Street had expected.
But on the company’s earnings call, CFO Gary Millerchip said the membership fee hike didn’t have much of an effect yet because of deferred accounting. It represented less than 1% of fee growth in the quarter, he said.
Comparable sales for the company increased 5.2% year over year. In the U.S., comparable sales rose 5.2% as well.
Gold and jewelry, gift cards, home furnishings, sporting goods, health and beauty aids, luggage kiosk and hardware were all up double digits.
E-commerce sales rose 13% in the quarter compared with the year-ago period.
As of Thursday’s close, shares of Costco are up nearly 50% so far this year, surpassing the 27% gains of the S&P 500 during the same period. Shares closed at $988.39 on Thursday.
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