Non-foods, including home categories, came on strong in the second quarter for Costco Wholesale Corp., helping to drive comparable store, revenue and income gains.
Net income was $1.79 billion, or $4.02 per diluted share versus $1.74 billion, or $3.92 per diluted share, in the year-previous quarter.
Still, Costco fell short of a Zacks Investment Research analyst consensus earnings per diluted share estimate of $4.09. Revenues beat the Zack’s forecast by 0.79%.
Comparable sales, excluding the effects of gasoline price and foreign exchange volatility, were up 9.1% with operations in the United States up 8.6%, those in Canada up 10.5% and those in other international markets up 10.3%. E-commerce comps gained 22.2%, the company reported.
Net sales were $62.53 billion and total revenues were $63.72 billion versus $57.33 billion and $58.44 billion, respectively, in the year-prior quarter. Operating income was $2.32 billion versus $2.06 billion in the year-earlier period.
In a conference call, Gary Millerchip, Costco executive vice president and CFO, said, “Our non-foods category led the way this quarter with comparable sales in the mid-teens.”
For the quarter, gold jewelry, gift cards, toys, housewares, appliances, sporting goods, home furnishings and small electrics advanced in the double-digits range
Foods and Sundries comps were up in the low-to-mid single digits while those for Fresh Food were up high single digits.Traffic increased 5.6% in the U.S. With the effects of gas and FX excluded, U.S. average ticket gained 2.8%.
