NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 17:45 ET — After-hours
- Costco shares fell 0.6% in after-hours trading to $867.84.
- U.S. stocks ended lower in light, holiday-shortened trade, keeping pressure on retail names.
- Investors are looking ahead to Costco’s December sales update due Jan. 7 and its next earnings call in March.
Costco Wholesale shares fell 0.6% in after-hours trading on Monday to $867.84.
The dip comes as investors head into the final two trading sessions of 2025 with holiday liquidity thin and little company-specific news to reset near-term expectations.
Costco’s stock has become a high-profile gauge for how well big-box retailers can hold demand without heavy discounting, helped by its membership-fee model. Those fees are a key profit driver because they carry much higher margins than most of the goods sold in warehouses.
U.S. stocks closed lower on Monday, with the S&P 500 down 0.35% and the Nasdaq off 0.50%, according to Reuters.
Retail sentiment was also softer, with the SPDR S&P Retail ETF down 0.8% in late trading.
Among big retail peers, Walmart rose 0.7% while Target fell 1.4% and BJ’s Wholesale slipped 2.5% after the bell, data showed.
Costco traded between $865.94 and $875 during the session, with about 1.76 million shares changing hands.
On Monday, Zacks Equity Research said its consensus estimate calls for Costco’s current fiscal-year sales to rise 7.5% and earnings per share to climb 11.7%, with the EPS estimate at $20.09.
Zacks also put Costco’s forward price-to-sales ratio at 1.28 — a valuation gauge that compares a company’s market value with projected revenue — versus 0.41 for Target.
“In light volume trading, we’re seeing a reversal of what we saw over the last couple of days,” Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, told Reuters, describing the broader market pullback into year-end. Reuters
Costco last reported results on Dec. 11, when it beat Wall Street estimates as first-quarter revenue climbed to $67.31 billion and same-store sales excluding gas rose 6.4%, Reuters reported.
The company said it also benefited from same-day delivery partnerships with Instacart in the United States and UberEats and DoorDash internationally, Reuters reported.
The next near-term read on demand is Costco’s December sales results, scheduled for Jan. 7, followed by its shareholders’ meeting on Jan. 15 and a March 5 earnings event for fiscal second-quarter results.
Markets will also look to Tuesday’s economic calendar — including the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index and the Chicago PMI, along with Federal Reserve meeting minutes flagged on major calendars — for any late-year shifts in rate expectations.
For Costco, traders will be watching whether the stock holds above Monday’s intraday low near $865.94 and whether it can retake the $875 area, the day’s high, before the company’s early-January sales update.
