New York, January 6, 2026, 18:45 EST — After-hours
- Costco shares closed up 1.5% on Tuesday and were little changed in after-hours trading.
- A Mizuho upgrade this week put renewed focus on membership trends and store traffic.
- Investors are watching Costco’s December sales update due on Wednesday.
Costco Wholesale Corp shares rose on Tuesday, extending a bounce after a broker upgrade as investors looked ahead to a closely watched monthly sales update.
The warehouse retailer is due to release December sales results on Wednesday. The report is a quick read on comparable sales — sales at stores open at least a year — and can shift expectations for margins and membership momentum early in the new year.
Costco shares closed at $888.96, up about 1.5%, and were little changed after hours at $889.10.
Mizuho upgraded Costco to “Outperform” and added it to its Top Picks list, arguing that recent worries about slowing membership and comparable sales growth have been overstated. “All current issues swirling around shares are the byproduct of simply having too much consumer demand,” analyst David Bellinger wrote. Investing.com
In a separate note carried by TipRanks, Bellinger said the stock’s roughly 20% pullback from its highs reflected investor anxiety about membership and comps, and he lifted his price target to $1,000 from $950.
GuruFocus, citing the same research, said Mizuho’s thesis leans on “fill-in” warehouse openings — new stores in markets Costco already serves — that can divert traffic from high-volume locations and temporarily weigh on headline membership growth. It also said renewal rates were above 90% and that premium Executive memberships were growing faster than overall membership. gurufocus.com
The setup comes after Costco reported first-quarter fiscal 2026 net sales of $65.98 billion, up 8.2% from a year earlier, and net income of $2.0 billion, or $4.50 per share.
Costco’s investor relations site lists a 52-week high of $1,078.23 and a 52-week low of $844.06, underscoring how much ground the stock lost after last year’s rally.
Still, some investors remain wary about a stretch of tougher comparisons, shifting foot traffic and cost pressures that can squeeze a low-margin retail model — risks that show up quickly in Costco’s monthly sales cadence.
Next up is Costco’s December sales release on January 7 at 1:15 p.m. PT, followed by the company’s annual shareholders meeting on January 15.
