New York, Jan 9, 2026, 10:55 AM EST — Regular session
- Costco shares were up about 0.8% in morning trade, extending Thursday’s rally after its December sales update
- December net sales rose 8.5% to $29.86 billion; comparable sales were up 7%, while digitally-enabled comps surged 18.9%
- Next up as a catalyst: Costco’s fiscal Q2 earnings call on March 5
Costco Wholesale shares were up about 0.8% at $922.60 in Friday morning trading. The stock has traded between $911.43 and $924.06 so far in the session.
The move came after Costco’s December sales report, a datapoint traders often lean on for an early sense of demand ahead of quarterly earnings. The company said net sales rose 8.5% to $29.86 billion in the five weeks ended Jan. 4. Comparable sales — sales at stores open at least a year — increased 7%. Digitally-enabled comparable sales, which include online orders, surged 18.9%.
Costco said comparable sales excluding gasoline and foreign exchange — a metric that strips out volatility from fuel prices and currency translation — increased 6.2% companywide and 6.3% in the U.S. Net sales for the first 18 weeks of fiscal 2026 climbed 8.3% to $101.83 billion. The company said it ran 923 warehouses worldwide and noted a pre-recorded message on the results will stay available through Jan. 14.
Costco’s sales update sparked a sharp jump on Thursday, with the shares up about 5% in afternoon trade, Investopedia reported. Analysts at William Blair said the report could “provide the stock with a much-needed boost.” UBS analysts, meanwhile, said they’d seen market expectations for comparable sales in a 3% to 5% range heading into the print. Investopedia
Analysts tracked by MarketScreener put the mean price target around $1,030, about 13% above Thursday’s close of $915.31. The gap has tightened somewhat over the past two sessions. Still, after a run of choppy trade in the shares, it remains a marker bulls point to.
Still, a one-month snapback doesn’t answer the larger question: can Costco keep traffic and ticket growth steady after the holiday pop wears off? Headline comparable-sales figures can also lurch month to month on gasoline prices and currency swings, and for a low-margin retailer, cost pressure is always a variable.
For the time being, investors who want more detail can turn to an audio file covering the December sales update on Costco’s investor site.
Costco’s next set piece is its fiscal second-quarter earnings call, slated for March 5 at 2:00 p.m. Pacific time.
