Costco (COST) – Get Free Report reported what some considered disappointing sales numbers in November. That has sent its stock slightly down as it ignited concerns over whether the chain would underperform the holiday season.
Sales numbers, of course, aren’t really the story for the chain, Instead, the big numbers to watch will be the warehouse club’s retention rate and how many new members it added during the quarter. Investors are also waiting eagerly for the chain to comment on a possible membership price increase as we’re headed into the period where that normally takes place.
Costco Stock Slides After Q1 Earnings Miss, Weakening Autumn Sales
Costco has been hesitant to raise the price of its membership — currently $60 for a basic Gold Star membership and $120 for an Executive membership, which comes with 2% cash back up to $1,000 per year — due to concerns over the economy. It has also not even commented on issuing a special dividend, which the company has done four times over the past 10 years.
CFO Rich Galanti lead the call, as he usually does.
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4:32 p.m. Costco said diluted earnings for the company’s fiscal first quarter, came in a $3.09 per share, up 3% from the same period last year.
Group revenues climbed by 8.1% to $54.437 billion, just shy of analysts’ forecasts of a $54.64 billion tally. Membership revenues rose 5.7% to $1 billion. Adjusted same-store sales were up 7.1% from last year, while e-commerce sales were down 3.7%.
