New York, May 28, 2026, 17:03 EDT
Costco Wholesale posted stronger quarterly sales than Wall Street expected on Thursday, helped by steady traffic, higher tickets and another jump in digital orders as U.S. shoppers kept hunting for value.
The timing matters. Fuel prices above $4 a gallon and still-high food costs have pushed households toward retailers that can make a clear savings case. Walmart CEO John Furner said last week that U.S. shoppers were “feeling some pressure” and looking to the chain for value, a backdrop that also favors Costco’s paid-membership warehouse model. Reuters
Costco said net sales for the 12 weeks ended May 10 rose 11.6% to $69.15 billion from $61.96 billion a year earlier. Total revenue, including membership fees, was $70.53 billion; LSEG-compiled expectations cited by Reuters were $69.81 billion.
Net income rose to $2.19 billion, or $4.93 a diluted share, from $1.90 billion, or $4.28 a share, a year earlier. Membership fees rose to $1.37 billion from $1.24 billion, keeping one of Costco’s most watched profit streams intact.
Comparable sales — sales from stores and digital channels open long enough to be measured against the prior year — rose 9.8%. Adjusted comparable sales, which strip out changes in gasoline prices and currency swings, rose 6.6%, while U.S. adjusted comparable sales climbed 6.8%, above the 6.13% average estimate cited by Reuters.
Digital was not a side story. Costco said digitally enabled comparable sales rose 21.5%, while e-commerce site and app traffic increased 37%. The company listed pharmacy, gold and jewelry, home furnishings, tires and housewares among top digital growth categories.
The membership engine also held up. Paid memberships rose 4.1% to 82.9 million, total cardholders reached 148.5 million, and the worldwide renewal rate was 89.7%. In the U.S. and Canada, where Costco’s model is most mature, renewal was 92.2%.
Shares closed down 0.85% at $995.20, then traded up 0.35% at $998.68 in extended trading at 5:03 p.m. Eastern, according to MarketBeat. The setup had been demanding: a 24/7 Wall St. article carried by Yahoo Finance rated Costco a “Hold” at $1,028.24 earlier Thursday, noting the shares were near a $1,096.50 52-week high and traded at rich earnings multiples. MarketBeat
Costco’s result also stood out against a mixed big-box tape. Seeking Alpha described the sales growth as stronger than major retail peers; Walmart kept conservative annual targets last week, Target raised its sales forecast but CEO Michael Fiddelke said he was not “wanting to swing too hard too quickly,” and Best Buy’s gains were tied more to AI devices and replacement demand than everyday essentials. Seeking Alpha
But the quarter was not risk-free. Costco’s gross margin was 11.04%, down 21 basis points from a year earlier, while selling, general and administrative expenses rose 20 basis points; a basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. The company also flagged tariffs, global conflicts, energy and commodity costs, wages and consumer spending as risks that could move results away from expectations.
Costco kept leaning into price. Its supplement showed lower everyday prices on several Kirkland Signature products, including crispy wings, milk chocolate almonds, golf balls and king sheets, a small but concrete reminder of why the chain’s value pitch matters when shoppers are stretched.
The company now operates 931 warehouses, including 639 in the United States and Puerto Rico, and runs e-commerce sites across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Australia and China. The numbers give investors another clean read on traffic and loyalty. They do not remove the valuation question.
