Costco on Thursday topped Wall Street’s expectations for quarterly earnings and revenue as the warehouse club posted double-digit gains in both membership income and its e-commerce business.
Unlike many other retailers, the company does not share an annual outlook.
On the company’s earnings call, CFO Gary Millerchip said the retailer has worked hard to offset higher tariff costs. In some cases, it has introduced new items from its Kirkland Signature private-label brand as alternatives to goods hit by tariffs, he said. About a third of Costco’s U.S. sales come from imported goods.
Costco is also changing its merchandise assortment in some cases, he said, such as buying more U.S.-made items or leaning into categories with less tariff exposure like health and beauty.
He said overall inflation remained in the low- to mid-single-digit range, with food price increases similar to last quarter. Yet for the second consecutive quarter, he said inflation returned for non-food merchandise, primarily driven by imported items.
Shares of the retailer fell slightly in extended trading.
Here’s how Costco did in its fiscal fourth quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $5.87 vs $5.80 expected
- Revenue: $86.16 billion vs. $86.06 billion expected
Costco’s net income for the three-month period that rose to $2.61 billion, or $5.87 per share, compared with $2.35 billion, or $5.29 per share a year earlier. Revenue increased from $79.7 billion in the year-ago period.
Same-store sales, an industry metric that takes out one-time factors such as store openings and closures, rose 6.4% excluding the impact from changes in gas prices and foreign exchange. That result, which was reported along with Costco’s August sales numbers, marks two quarters in a row of decelerating same-store sales.
E-commerce sales increased by 13.5% compared with the year-ago period, excluding the impacts from changes in gas prices and foreign exchange.
For the full year, e-commerce sales exceeded $19.6 billion, a 15% year over year increase, Vachris said on the company’s earnings call. That amounts to a little over 7% of Costco’s net sales for the year.
Vachris said Costco is adding more digital features, including the rollout of checkout technology to clubs that makes it faster for employees to scan small- and medium-sized transactions. It’s improving the search features on its website and app. And, he said, it’s created a virtual waiting room on its website for high-demand items like Pokemon cards during peak traffic periods.
As U.S. consumers look for value, Costco and its warehouse club competitors have opened new locations and attracted more members. Younger shoppers have signed up for the stores as the retailers offer more convenient ways to shop online, a wider variety of merchandise and cheaper meals.
In an interview this summer, Millerchip told CNBC that the average age of the company’s members has fallen, and just under half of…
Read More: Costco (COST) Q4 2025 earnings
