Costco (COST) Is About to Report Q3 Earnings. Here’s What to Expect

Membership-only warehouse chain Costco (COST) is scheduled to announce its results for the third quarter of Fiscal on Thursday, May 29, 2025. COST stock has risen 10% so far this year. Analysts are cautiously optimistic about the stock, given that the retailer’s value proposition and loyal member base enable it to deliver resilient performance during tough times. However, weak consumer confidence amid macro uncertainties could impact results to some extent. Analysts expect Costco to report earnings per share (EPS) of $4.24, reflecting a growth of 14.3%.

Meanwhile, revenue is expected to rise 7.8% year-over-year to $63.1 billion.

Costco’s massive and loyal member base and its low-price offerings have been its key growth drivers. As reflected in this chart from Main Street Data, Costco boasts membership renewal rates of around 90%.

Analysts’ Views Ahead of Costco’s Q3 Earnings

Reacting to Costco’s April sales update, UBS analyst Michael Lasser reiterated a Buy rating on COST stock with a price target of $1,205. The 5-star analyst highlighted that despite concerns around consumer confidence and tariff distractions, Costco once again proved that it is seeing strong momentum on both an absolute and a relative basis. This reflects continued market share gains.

The retailer generated a core comparable sales growth (excluding forex and fuel) of 6.7%, or about 8.5%, excluding the impact of the calendar shift of Easter. Lasser thinks that Costco likely gained notable market share in discretionary categories, evidenced by its mid-single-digit to high-single-digit percent non-foods comparable sales growth, which probably would not have been far from the nearly low-double-digit percent trend seen in the past few months, excluding the impact of the calendar shift.

Meanwhile, Bernstein analyst Zhihan Ma, who has a Buy rating on Costco stock, contends that while for Walmart (WMT) and Costco, he sees limited EPS impacts from tariffs, both stocks are priced for perfection, at 37x and 54x P/E, respectively. Ma is “not pounding the table going into earnings,” due to elevated expectations. He believes that investors should wait for a better entry point to own both names for the long-term upside.

Here’s What Options Traders Anticipate

Using TipRanks’ Options tool, we can see what options traders are expecting from the stock immediately after its earnings report. The expected earnings move is determined by calculating the at-the-money straddle of the options closest to expiration after the earnings announcement. If this sounds complicated, don’t worry, the Options tool does this for you.

Indeed, it currently says that options traders are expecting about a 4.05% move in either direction in COST stock in reaction to Q3 results.

Is Costco Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold?

Overall, Wall Street has a Moderate Buy consensus rating on Costco Wholesale stock based on 17 Buys and seven Holds. The average COST stock price target of $1,077 implies about 7% upside potential.

See more COST analyst ratings