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Costco on Thursday missed Wall Street’s revenue expectations for its holiday quarter, despite reporting year-over-year sales growth and strong e-commerce gains.
Shares of the retailer fell about 4% in aftermarket trading. The retailer’s stock had hit a 52-week high earlier in the day.
The company offered few details on its quarterly performance in a news release, but will hold an investor call at 5 p.m. ET.
Here’s what the retailer reported for its fiscal second quarter of 2024 compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv:
- Earnings per share: $3.92 vs. $3.62 expected
- Revenue: $58.44 billion vs. $59.16 billion expected
In the three-month period that ended Feb. 18, Costco’s net income rose to $1.74 billion, or $3.92 per share, compared to $1.47 billion, or $3.30 per share, a year earlier.
Costco’s revenue for the quarter increased from $55.27 billion in the year-ago period.
Comparable sales for the company increased 5.6% year over year and 4.3% in the U.S. Excluding changes in gas prices and foreign currency, the metric increased 5.8% overall and 4.8% in the U.S.
E-commerce sales grew 18.4% in the quarter compared with the year earlier.
Costco has 875 warehouses, including 603 in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. It also has clubs in about a dozen other countries, including Canada, Mexico, Japan and China.
As of Thursday’s close, Costco shares have risen nearly 19% since the start of the year. The stock touched a 52-week high of $787.08 earlier in the day and closed at $785.59, bringing the company’s market value to nearly $350 billion.
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