Costco shares rise as earnings top Wall Street expectations
Costco shares rise after the warehouse club company reported earnings that topped Wall Street expectations
In this Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017, photo, shopping carts are lined up at a Costco Wholesale store in Cranberry Township, Pa. Costco Wholesale Corporation reports earnings, Thursday, May 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
·Associated PressISSAQUAH, Wash. (AP) -- Costco shares rose in after-hours trading after the warehouse club company reported earnings that topped Wall Street expectations.
The Issaquah, Washington-based company said Thursday that net income in its most recent quarter came to $700 million, or $1.59 per share, up from $545 million, or $1.24 per share, in the same period last year.
Stripping out one-time items, earnings came to $1.40 per share in the quarter that ended May 7; analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research predicted $1.31 per share.
Revenue rose 7.8 percent to $28.86 billion, edging past the $28.65 billion estimate from Zacks' analysts. Sales and how much members pay in annual fees both rose.
A key revenue figure that strips out the impact from brand-new stores rose 5 percent, with stronger growth in Costco's U.S. stores — 6 percent — compared with its much smaller number of international locations. Of Costco's 732 stores, 510 are in the U.S
An additional boost in membership fees could come this quarter; a price increase is slated to go into effect June 1.
Costco Wholesale Corp. shares had increased 9 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has increased nearly 8 percent. Shares rose 1 percent to $174.73 Thursday and added an additional 1.8 percent after the market closed.
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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on COST at https://www.zacks.com/ap/COST
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Keywords: Costco, Earnings Report
