Costco On Thursday he reported a profit failure, but exceeded income expectations for the second quarter as quarterly comparable sales increased.
The actions obtained more than 1% in extended operations on Thursday night.
This is how the wholesale company did compared to what Wall Street expected for the quarter that ended on February 16, based on an LSEG analysts survey:
- Profit per action: $ 4.02 vs. $ 4.11 expected
- Revenue: $ 63.72 billion vs. $ 63.13 billion expected
The CEO of Costco, Ron Vichris, said that although it is difficult to forecast the impact of tariffs, the company aims to minimize cost increases for members. A third of their US sales are imports, he said, and less than half of them come from China, Mexico and Canada.
“In uncertain times, our members have historically given an even greater importance to the value of high quality articles at great prices, and our teams will continue to increase to this challenge taking advantage of our global purchasing power, strong suppliers and innovation relations,” Vachris said.
Citing tariff implications for groceries specifically, Vachris said the margins are “much stricter” in that area, but that Costco will work with suppliers to mitigate the consequences for consumers.
President Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs in Mexico and Canada and doubled his tariff on China at 20% this week, although the White House said on Thursday that the United States will exempt goods that comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement until April 2. Retailers like Aim and Best Buy I have warned that tariffs would probably lead to price increases.
The revenues of the second Costco quarter increased 9% to $ 63.72 billion, from $ 58.44 billion during the same quarter in fiscal year 2024. Net sales for quarter increased 9.1% to $ 62.53 billion, compared to $ 57.33 billion in the previous year.
The membership rates for the quarter totaled $ 1.19 billion, compared to $ 1.11 billion in the second quarter of 2024, and the company reported 78.4 million paid memberships and 140.6 million card holders. Throughout the world, the Costco membership renewal rate reached 90.5%, an increase of 0.1% from the last quarter.
The retailer increased his annual membership rates for the United States and Canada in September for the first time since 2017, although Financial Director Gary Millerchip said that the impact of the increase in the total rates of this quarter was only 3%.
Costco reported a net income for the second quarter of $ 1.79 billion, or $ 4.02 per share, compared to a net income of $ 1.74 billion, or $ 3.92 per share, during the second quarter of fiscal year 2024.
Quarterly comparable sales, which Costco defines as sales of warehouses and electronic commerce sites are opened for more than a year, increased 6.8% year after year, compared to the estreetacount estate of 6.4%, and increased 8.3% in the US. UU. Comparable sales for electronic commerce increased 20.9% year after year.
Monthly, comparable sales growth fell from 7.5% in January to 6.5% in February. The extreme climate last month caused “some successes here and there,” said Vachris, but the company recovered most of that lost business.
Purchasing traffic grew 5.7% year after year, with a 5.6% increase in the United States The main sales categories of the company included gold and jewelry, furniture, hardware and toys, all of which two digits grew year after year, according to Millerchip.
Consumer behavior, said Millerchip, has not changed much in the last quarters. Costco members are selective with the products they buy, he said, and would become even more if tariffs and inflation grow more significant.
“We believe that the member is probably now focused on quality, value and novelty as they have been for a long time, but they are still showing that disposition to spend,” said Millerchip.
The Costco fresh food category experienced growth in the high digit digits, Millerchip said. Continuing with a trend of the last quarter, meat sales increased in two digits, Millerchip said, since consumers moved to lower cost proteins as ground meat. Customers continued to spend more at food at home, he added.
The meat and bakery sections led the category of fresh foods to lead Costco categories in inflation, although general inflation was in the low digits, he added.
