Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) has revealed its December retail sales results for the five weeks ended January 2, 2022.
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The company reported net sales of $22.24 billion, up 16.2% year-over-year from $19.14 billion. Additionally, for the 18 weeks ended January 2, 2022, Costco recorded a year-over-year rise in net sales of 16.6% to $76.34 billion from $65.47 billion.
Costco is an American multinational corporation, which operates a chain of membership-only big-box retail stores.
Sales Metrics in Detail
During December, comparable sales increased 14.5% year-over-year across all regions. Markedly, U.S. comparable sales were up 15.9%, while e-commerce sales rose 17.8% from the same period last year. Excluding gasoline prices and foreign exchange rates, overall comparable sales rose 11.5%, with U.S. comparable sales increasing 11.5%.
For the 18 weeks ended January 2, 2022, comparable sales jumped 14.9% year-over-year, with U.S. comparable sales growing 15.4% and e-commerce sales up 14.4%. Excluding gasoline prices and foreign exchange rates, overall comparable sales surged 10.4%, while U.S. comparable sales increased 10.5%.
Wall Street’s Take
Following the release of the December numbers, Robert W. Baird analyst Peter Benedict reiterated a Buy rating and increased the price target to $600 (9.11% upside potential) from $550.
Benedict expects the company to record consistent profitability compared to other retailers in 2022.
Consensus among analysts is a Strong Buy based on 18 Buys versus 5 Holds. The average Costco price target of $563.30 implies 2.43% upside potential. Shares have jumped 50.6% over the past year.
Website Traffic
TipRanks’ Website Traffic Tool, which uses data from SEMrush Holdings (NYSE: SEMR), the world’s biggest website usage monitoring service, offers insight into Costco’s performance this quarter.
According to the tool, the Costco website recorded a 13.52% decrease in global visits in November compared to the same period last year. In contrast, year-to-date website traffic growth stands at 15.83%.
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