Why are CostCo's Profits Down?
Excerpt from the InvestorGuide.com Stock of the Day on 3/4/2009

In February, CostCo warned investors that their Q2 profits would be "substantially below" expectations. As a retailer, this made sense at the time. However, because they provide consumer staples through discounted bulk sales, investors should have expected them to perform relatively well, or at least better than last year. This is because consumer staples have historically proven a safe place to invest during economic recessions. As households try to cut back on costs, they are apt to seize discounts as much as possible, even if it means buying in bulk. Therefore, the lower profit almost seems counter intuitive. To be exact, they posted a net income of $239.7 million, or 55 cents per share. For the same quarter in 2008, they posted $327.9 million or 74 cents per share. This begs the question why did their profits fall and additionally, does the company still make sense as an investment? More >

Costco Leads Gains in Retail on Higher Earnings
Excerpt from the InvestorGuide.com Stock of the Day on 10/12/2006

The country's largest wholesale operator posted higher than expected earnings on Thursday, leading investors to push the stock up more than 4 percent in early trading. The earnings estimates were lower than initially projected after Costco executives lowered the bar at the end of August. The company also announced that an independent review of their stock options policy revealed no apparent fraud or wrongdoing, all but eliminating concerns about restatement of financial records. Can we expect similarly positive news from Costco in the coming quarters? Or will we see more events like those of the past few months, which caused the company's stock to hover significantly off of its 52 week high? More >

Costco Posts Higher December Same-Store Sales
Excerpt from the InvestorGuide.com Stock of the Day on 1/7/2005

Costco, the nation's largest wholesale club operator, announced that its comparable sales for December, a five week period ending Jan 2nd, rose 8 percent for U.S stores open at least one year and rose 12 for international stores. Costco claims that sales were helped by higher gasoline prices and foreign exchange movements. More >