Costco Wholesale (COST) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

Costco Wholesale Corporation operates a global chain of membership-only warehouse clubs, offering a wide array of products and services at low prices. Its merchandise selection includes groceries, electronics, home furnishings, apparel, health and beauty items, industrial supplies, and seasonal goods. In addition to retail offerings, Costco provides ancillary services such as optical centers, pharmacies, gas stations, photo processing, and travel packages, leveraging its membership model to drive customer loyalty and recurring revenue through annual fees.

Founded in 1983 by James Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman, Costco merged with Price Club in 1993 to form a consolidated warehouse retailer. Headquartered in Issaquah, Washington, the company has expanded its footprint across North America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania, with locations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Spain, France, China, and Iceland. It also supports a growing e-commerce platform that complements its brick-and-mortar operations, allowing members to shop online for home delivery or in-warehouse pickup.

Costco’s private-label brand, Kirkland Signature, is a significant part of its value proposition, offering quality products at competitive price points. The company’s low-price strategy is enabled by operating on thin retail margins and relying on membership fees to bolster profitability. This business model has cultivated a loyal customer base and driven consistent year-over-year growth in membership enrollment and warehouse count.

Corporate leadership is headed by President and Chief Executive Officer W. Craig Jelinek, who has led the company since 2012. The board of directors is chaired by Hamilton E. James, with Richard A. Galanti serving as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Under this leadership team, Costco continues to emphasize employee welfare, efficient supply chain management, and disciplined expansion into new markets.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $950.67 to $962.54
• 50-Day Range: $927.51 to $994.57
• 52-Week Range: $867.16 to $1,078.23
• Volume: 1.86 million shs
• Average Volume: 2.19 million shs
• Market Capitalization: $422.35 billion
• P/E Ratio: 54.02
• Dividend Yield: 0.55%
• Price Target: $1,056.67
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy

Costco Wholesale Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Costco Wholesale scored higher than 91% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 35th out of 220 stocks in the retail/wholesale sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 3.0 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Moderate Buy

Consensus Rating

Costco Wholesale has received a consensus rating of Moderate Buy. The company's average rating score is 2.63, and is based on 17 buy ratings, 10 hold ratings, and no sell ratings.

Upside Potential

Costco Wholesale has a consensus price target of $1,056.67, representing about 11.0% upside from its current price of $952.23.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Costco Wholesale has only been the subject of 4 research reports in the past 90 days.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 1.9 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: 9.21%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for Costco Wholesale are expected to grow by 9.21% in the coming year, from $18.03 to $19.69 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of Costco Wholesale is 54.05, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 281.49.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Costco Wholesale is 54.05, which means that it is trading at a more expensive P/E ratio than the Retail/Wholesale sector average P/E ratio of about 20.68.

Price to Earnings Growth Ratio

Costco Wholesale has a PEG Ratio of 5.36. PEG Ratios above 1 indicate that a company could be overvalued.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

Costco Wholesale has a P/B Ratio of 17.87. P/B Ratios above 3 indicate that a company could be overvalued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 3.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Healthy

Percentage of Shares Shorted

1.55% of the float of Costco Wholesale has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Costco Wholesale has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 3.3, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Costco Wholesale has recently increased by 15.74%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly.

Dividend

• Score: 3.3 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Strong

Dividend Yield

Costco Wholesale has a dividend yield of 0.54%, which is in the bottom 25% of all stocks that pay dividends.

Dividend Growth

Costco Wholesale has been increasing its dividend for 22 years.

Dividend Coverage

The dividend payout ratio of Costco Wholesale is 29.50%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%.

Dividend Sustainability

Based on earnings estimates, Costco Wholesale will have a dividend payout ratio of 26.41% next year. This indicates that Costco Wholesale will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

Sustainability and ESG

• Score: 1.5 / 5
• Environmental Score: -3.94

Percentage of Shares Shorted

1.55% of the float of Costco Wholesale has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Costco Wholesale has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 3.3, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Costco Wholesale has recently increased by 15.74%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly.

News and Social Media

• Score: 3.9 / 5
• News Sentiment: 1.03

News Sentiment

Costco Wholesale has a news sentiment score of 1.03. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a higher news sentiment than the 0.79 average news sentiment score of Retail/Wholesale companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 119 news articles for Costco Wholesale this week, compared to 61 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

154 people have searched for COST on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 39% compared to the previous 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

82 people have added Costco Wholesale to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 110% compared to the previous 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 2.5 / 5
• Insider Trading: Selling Shares

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, Costco Wholesale insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $5,031,130.00 in company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

Only 0.18% of the stock of Costco Wholesale is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

68.48% of the stock of Costco Wholesale is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

COST Stock Analysis - Frequently Asked Questions

How have COST shares performed this year?

Costco Wholesale's stock was trading at $916.27 at the start of the year. Since then, COST shares have increased by 3.9% and is now trading at $952.2260.

How were Costco Wholesale's earnings last quarter?

Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) released its earnings results on Thursday, May, 29th. The retailer reported $4.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.04. Costco Wholesale's revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis.
Read the conference call transcript.

Does Costco Wholesale have any subsidiaries?

Costco Wholesale subsidiaries include these companies: Innovel Solutions, Costco De Mexico S.A. de C.V., Costco Insurance Agency Inc., Costco President Taiwan Inc., Costco Wholesale Canada Ltd., Costco Wholesale Japan Ltd., Costco Wholesale Korea Ltd., and more.

Who are Costco Wholesale's major shareholders?

Top institutional shareholders of Costco Wholesale include Vanguard Group Inc. (9.78%), State Street Corp (4.13%), Geode Capital Management LLC (2.32%) and Norges Bank (1.30%). Insiders that own company stock include W Craig Jelinek, Patrick J Callans, Patrick J Callans, James C Klauer, James C Klauer, Roland Michael Vachris, Richard A Galanti, Susan L Decker, Gary Millerchip, Daniel M Hines, Russell D Miller, Pierre Riel, Claudine Adamo, Caton Frates, Kenneth D Denman, Yoram Rubanenko and Teresa A Jones.
View institutional ownership trends.

How do I buy shares of Costco Wholesale?

Shares of COST stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, and Vanguard Brokerage Services.

What other stocks do shareholders of Costco Wholesale own?

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some other companies that Costco Wholesale investors own include NVIDIA (NVDA), Meta Platforms (META), Broadcom (AVGO), Salesforce (CRM), Chevron (CVX), Home Depot (HD) and BlackRock (BLK).

Company Calendar

• Last Earnings: 5/29/2025
• Record date for 8/15 Dividend: 8/01/2025
• Ex-Dividend for 8/15 Dividend: 8/01/2025
• Dividend Payable: 8/15/2025
• Today: 9/18/2025
• Next Earnings (Estimated): 9/25/2025
• Fiscal Year End: 8/31/2026

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NASDAQ
• Sector: Retail/Wholesale
• Industry: RETAIL - DISCOUNT
• Sub-Industry: Hypermarkets & Super Centers
• Current Symbol: NASDAQ:COST
• CIK: 909832
• Web: www.costco.com
• Phone: (425) 313-8100
• Fax: 425-313-6593
• Employees: 333,000
• Year Founded: 1983

Price Target and Rating

• Average Price Target for Costco Wholesale: $1,056.67
• High Price Target: $1,225.00
• Low Price Target: $907.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +9.7%
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.65
• Research Coverage: 26 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Trailing Twelve Months): $17.63
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 54.62
• Forward P/E Ratio: 53.41
• P/E Growth: 5.36
• Net Income: $7.37 billion
• Net Margins: 2.92%
• Pretax Margin: 3.88%
• Return on Equity: 30.48%
• Return on Assets: 10.52%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 0.21
• Current Ratio: 1.02
• Quick Ratio: 0.52

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $268.78 billion
• Price / Sales: 1.59
• Cash Flow: $21.46 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 44.88
• Book Value: $53.28 per share
• Price / Book: 18.07

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 443,477,000
• Free Float: 442,679,000
• Market Cap: $427.08 billion
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 0.97