Costco (COST) Stock Dips Despite Q4 Beats

Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST - Free Report) just released its fourth quarter and full-year 2017 financial results, posting earnings of $2.08 per share and revenues of $42.3 billion. Currently, Costco is a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), and is down 1.54% to $164.49 per share in after-hours trading shortly after its earnings report was released.

Costco:

Beat earnings estimates. The company posted earnings of $2.08 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.02 per share.

Beat revenue estimates. The company saw revenue figures $42.3 billion, beating our consensus estimate of $41.74 billion.

Costco announced its results for its 17-week fourth quarter and the 53-week fiscal year that ended Sept. 3. The company’s fourth quarter sales jumped 15.8% from the year-ago period, but that was a 16-week period. For the full-year, Costco’s sales gained 8.7% to reach $129.03 billion, however, once, again the increase was up against a shorter 52-week fiscal 2016.

The big-box retailer’s fourth quarter earnings climbed 17.5% from last year during its 16-week fourth quarter. Costco posted full fiscal year earnings of $6.08 per share, which is up 14.07%.

Costco’s earnings were positively impacted by an $82 million tax benefit and a separate net earnings gain of $51 million, from non-recurring gains that included net legal gains.

The chain ended its fiscal year with 514 warehouses in operation in the U.S. and 741 total.

Here’s a graph that looks at COST’s Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise history:

Costco Wholesale Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

|

Costco Wholesale Corp. operates membership warehouses based on the concept that offering members very low prices on a limited selection of nationally branded and selected private label products in a wide range of merchandise categories will produce high sales volumes and rapid inventory turnover. This rapid inventory turnover enables Costco to operate profitably at significantly lower gross margins than traditional wholesalers, discount retailers and supermarkets.