Shares of Costco (COST) saw little change in after-hours trading after the retailer reported earnings for its first quarter of Fiscal Year 2025. Earnings per share came in at $3.82, which beat analysts’ consensus estimate of $3.79 per share.
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Sales increased by 7.5% year-over-year, with revenue hitting $62.15 billion. This beat analysts’ expectations by $150 million and was driven by growth in adjusted comparable sales. When breaking down these numbers into geographical segments, growth was as follows:
- U.S. 7.2%
- Canada 6.7%
- Other International 7.1%
- Total Company 7.1%
- E-commerce 13.2%
What’s interesting is that Costco’s e-commerce segment saw such strong results despite getting less traffic to its website this quarter. In fact, when compared to the same quarter of last year, website traffic actually fell 20%, according to TipRanks’ data. This suggests that Costco is doing a better job of monetizing the people who visit its online store.
Costco Returns $722M to Shareholders
During the past 12 weeks, Costco returned $722 Million to shareholders. Dividends made up $515 million, while buybacks made up the remaining. The firm has regularly repurchased its shares in each of the most recent quarters (as demonstrated in the image below).
Is COST Stock a Buy or Sell?
Unfortunately, Costco did not provide an outlook. However, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on COST stock based on 17 Buys, seven Holds, and zero Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 58% rally in its share price over the past year, the average COST price target of $995.85 per share implies that shares are fairly valued. However, it’s worth noting that estimates will likely change following today’s earnings report.
