Yahoo Finance Costco (COST) Posts Impressive Comparable Sales in June
In spite of operating in a competitive retail landscape, Costco Wholesale Corporation COST has reported solid comparable sales (comps) numbers for the month of June. Comps for the five-week period ended Jul 8, 2018 rose 9.7%, following an advance of 11.7% in May. This shows that the company continues to be one of the dominant retail wholesalers based on the breadth and quality of merchandise offered.
The company generated net sales of $13.55 billion in the month of June, up 11.7% year over year. Notably, net sales have jumped 14.1% in the month of May.
Comps for June reflect an increase of 10.8%, 6% and 7.3% at the United States, Canada and Other International locations, respectively. Excluding the impact of foreign currency fluctuations and gasoline prices, Costco’s comps for the month under review rose 6.9%. The company recorded comps increase of 7.7%, 3.4% and 6.9% at the United States, Canada and Other International locations, respectively.
For the 44-week period, Costco reported 9.6% jump in comps, displaying an increase of 9.1%, 10.1% and 11.8% at the United States, Canada and Other International locations, respectively. Net sales for the period came in at $116.81 billion, an increase of 12% from the year-ago period.
We noted that the company’s e-commerce comparable sales surged 27.9% in the month under review. This signals that its efforts to drive online sales bode well. With the wave of digital transformation hitting the sector, retailers are fast adopting the omni-channel mantra to provide a seamless shopping experience, whether online or in-stores. Costco, which shares space with Walmart WMT, Amazon AMZN and Target TGT, is no exception to this trend.
Cumulatively, these helped this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock to climb roughly 11.7% in the past three month, comfortably outperforming the industry’s increase of 8.9%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Costco operates 752 warehouses, comprising 522 warehouses in the United States and Puerto Rico, 98 in Canada, 38 in Mexico, 28 in the U.K., 26 in Japan, 14 in Korea, 13 in Taiwan, nine in Australia, two in Spain, one in Iceland and one in France. It is also gradually expanding e-commerce capabilities in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Mexico, Korea and Taiwan.
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