Yahoo Finance Costco (COST) Flat As Market Sinks: What You Should Know
Costco (COST) closed the most recent trading day at $503.28, making no change from the previous trading session. This move was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.3%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.77%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 5.51%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the warehouse club operator had gained 10.25% over the past month. This has lagged the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 11.37% and outpaced the S&P 500's gain of 6.41% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from Costco as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $3.20, up 9.59% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $55.56 billion, up 7.05% from the year-ago period.
Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $14.24 per share and revenue of $243.22 billion. These totals would mark changes of +8.37% and +7.17%, respectively, from last year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Costco. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.13% lower. Costco is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.
Investors should also note Costco's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 35.33. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 27.81, which means Costco is trading at a premium to the group.
We can also see that COST currently has a PEG ratio of 3.69. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. Retail - Discount Stores stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.58 based on yesterday's closing prices.
The Retail - Discount Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 215, which puts it in the bottom 15% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
To follow COST in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.
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Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) : Free Stock Analysis Report
