Costco Wholesale – A Brief Overview

By Blake Campbell • Wednesday, November 15 12:01 • Permanent Link

More and more people are talking about Costco Wholesale over the last few weeks. Is it worth buying the Department Store stock at a price of $598.63? Only time will tell. The information below will give you a basic idea of what this investment may entail:

Costco Wholesale has moved 14.0% over the last year, and the S&P 500 logged a change of 15.0%
COST has an average analyst rating of buy and is 0.54% away from its mean target price of $595.41 per share
Its trailing earnings per share (EPS) is $14.19
Costco Wholesale has a trailing 12 month Price to Earnings (P/E) ratio of 42.2 while the S&P 500 average is 15.97
Its forward earnings per share (EPS) is $17.08 and its forward P/E ratio is 35.0
The company has a Price to Book (P/B) ratio of 10.58 in contrast to the S&P 500's average ratio of 2.95
Costco Wholesale is part of the Consumer Discretionary sector, which has an average P/E ratio of 22.33 and an average P/B of 3.12
COST has reported YOY quarterly earnings growth of 15.7% and gross profit margins of 0.1%
The company has a free cash flow of $5.46 Billion, which refers to the total sum of all its inflows and outflows of cash over the last quarter
Costco Wholesale Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the operation of membership warehouses in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Japan, the United Kingdom, Korea, Australia, Taiwan, China, Spain, France, Iceland, New Zealand, and Sweden. The company offers branded and private-label products in a range of merchandise categories. It offers merchandise, such as sundries, dry groceries, candies, coolers, freezers, deli, liquor, and tobacco; appliances, electronics, health and beauty aids, hardware, garden and patio products, sporting goods, tires, toys and seasonal products, office supplies, automotive care products, postages, tickets, apparel, small appliances, furniture, domestics, housewares, special order kiosks, and jewelry; and meat, produce, service deli, and bakery products. The company also operates gasoline, pharmacies, optical, food courts, hearing-aid centers, and tire installation centers; and offers business delivery, travel, grocery, and various other services online. It also operates e-commerce websites. The company was formerly known as Costco Companies, Inc. and changed its name to Costco Wholesale Corporation in August 1999. Costco Wholesale Corporation was founded in 1976 and is based in Issaquah, Washington.

The above analysis is intended for educational purposes only and was performed on the basis of publicly available data. It is not to be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Any buy, sell, or other recommendations mentioned in the article are direct quotations of consensus recommendations from the analysts covering the stock, and do not represent the opinions of Market Inference or its writers. Past performance, accounting data, and inferences about market position and corporate valuation are not reliable indicators of future price movements. Market Inference does not provide financial advice. Investors should conduct their own review and analysis of any company of interest before making an investment decision.