Costco Wholesale (COST) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

Costco Wholesale Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the operation of membership warehouses in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Japan, the United Kingdom, Korea, Australia, Taiwan, China, Spain, France, Iceland, New Zealand, and Sweden. The company offers branded and private-label products in a range of merchandise categories. It offers merchandise, such as sundries, dry groceries, candies, coolers, freezers, deli, liquor, and tobacco; appliances, electronics, health and beauty aids, hardware, garden and patio products, sporting goods, tires, toys and seasonal products, office supplies, automotive care products, postages, tickets, apparel, small appliances, furniture, domestics, housewares, special order kiosks, and jewelry; and meat, produce, service deli, and bakery products. The company also operates gasoline, pharmacies, optical, food courts, hearing-aid centers, and tire installation centers; and offers business delivery, travel, grocery, and various other services online. It also operates e-commerce websites. The company was formerly known as Costco Companies, Inc. and changed its name to Costco Wholesale Corporation in August 1999. Costco Wholesale Corporation was founded in 1976 and is based in Issaquah, Washington.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $977.00 to $988.20
• 50-Day Range: $927.51 to $1,056.85
• 52-Week Range: $837.63 to $1,078.23
• Volume: 937,079 shs
• Average Volume: 2.21 million shs
• Market Capitalization: $436.96 billion
• P/E Ratio: 55.88
• Dividend Yield: 0.53%
• Price Target: $1,050.00
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy

Costco Wholesale Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Costco Wholesale scored higher than 90% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 28th out of 210 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: 2.3 / 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.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Costco Wholesale has been the subject of 7 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 1.3 / 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 55.44, which means that it is trading at a more expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 27.84.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Costco Wholesale is 55.44, which means that it is trading at a more expensive P/E ratio than the Retail/Wholesale sector average P/E ratio of about 29.54.

Price to Earnings Growth Ratio

Costco Wholesale has a PEG Ratio of 6.02. 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 18.35. P/B Ratios above 3 indicate that a company could be overvalued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 5.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Healthy

Percentage of Shares Shorted

1.10% of the outstanding shares of Costco Wholesale have been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Costco Wholesale has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 2.4, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Costco Wholesale has recently decreased by 14.44%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving significantly.

Dividend

• Score: 3.3 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Strong

Dividend Yield

Costco Wholesale has a dividend yield of 0.55%, 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

1.10% of the outstanding shares of Costco Wholesale have been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Costco Wholesale has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 2.4, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Costco Wholesale has recently decreased by 14.44%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving significantly.

News and Social Media

• Score: 3.9 / 5
• News Sentiment: 1.01

News Sentiment

Costco Wholesale has a news sentiment score of 1.01. 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 0.66 average news sentiment score of Retail/Wholesale companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 155 news articles for Costco Wholesale this week, compared to 96 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

118 people have searched for COST on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 33% compared to the previous 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

81 people have added Costco Wholesale to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 65% 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 $9,472,510.00 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 beginning of 2025. Since then, COST shares have increased by 6.7% and is now trading at $977.45.

How were Costco Wholesale's earnings last quarter?

Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) posted its earnings results on Thursday, May, 29th. The retailer reported $4.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.04. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year.
Read the conference call transcript.

Does Costco Wholesale have any subsidiaries?

The following companies are subsidiaries of Costco Wholesale: 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 Bank of New York Mellon Corp (0.77%), Jennison Associates LLC (0.71%), Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC (0.53%) and Bank of Montreal Can (0.33%). 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

• Record date for 5/16 Dividend: 5/02/2025
• Ex-Dividend for 5/16 Dividend: 5/02/2025
• Dividend Payable: 5/16/2025
• Last Earnings: 5/29/2025
• Record date for 8/15 Dividend: 8/01/2025
• Ex-Dividend for 8/15 Dividend: 8/01/2025
• Today: 8/08/2025
• Dividend Payable: 8/15/2025
• Fiscal Year End: 8/31/2025
• Next Earnings (Estimated): 9/25/2025

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: $1,050.00
• High Price Target: $1,225.00
• Low Price Target: $890.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +7.4%
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.63
• Research Coverage: 27 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Trailing Twelve Months): $17.63
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 55.44
• Forward P/E Ratio: 54.21
• P/E Growth: 6.02
• 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: $254.45 billion
• Price / Sales: 1.70
• Cash Flow: $21.41 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 45.66
• Book Value: $53.28 per share
• Price / Book: 18.35

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 443,480,000
• Free Float: 442,679,000
• Market Cap: $433.48 billion
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 0.96