Costco Wholesale (COST) has reported higher December sales, boosted by year-end holiday shopping.
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The Seattle-based grocery retailer said sales rose 10% to $27.52 billion during the five weeks ended January 5. In November, Costco’s sales rose 5.6%. Same-store sales across all of its retail locations increased 7.4% in December from a year earlier, while e-commerce sales jumped 34.4% year-over-year.
Costco said that its December sales got a boost from the Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday sales events that occurred a week later than normal at the end of 2024. Through the first 18 weeks of its current Fiscal year, Costco’s net sales rose 8% from a year ago to $94.04 billion.
Costco is one of the few companies that continues to report its sales on a monthly as well as quarterly basis.
E-commerce Sales
Costco added that its U.S. comparable sales, when excluding the impacts of fuel prices and currency fluctuations, jumped 9.8% in December from the previous year. That result was nearly double the 5.2% growth expected among analysts that track the company’s progress.
E-commerce sales continue to be the driving force behind Costco’s performance. The company estimates that its December online sales got a 15 percentage point boost from year-end holiday shopping among consumers. COST stock rose 2% in after-hours trading on news its latest sales.
The company’s share price has gained 40% in the past 12 months.
Is COST Stock a Buy?
The stock of Costco has a consensus Moderate Buy rating among 25 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on 17 Buy and eight Hold recommendations assigned in the past three months. The average COST price target of $1,065.04 implies 14.85% upside potential for the shares.
