Costco made solid gains in the first quarter of its fiscal year with comparable store sales and profits both up but fell short of Wall Street revenue and earnings estimates.
Net income for the quarter was $1.36 billion, or $3.07 per diluted share, versus $1.32 billion, or $2.98 per diluted share, in the year-before period, Costco stated. Results for the quarter included a charge of $93 million pre-tax, or 15 cents per diluted share, primarily related to downsizing the company’s charter shipping activities, and a tax benefit of $53 million, 12 cents per diluted share, related to stock-based compensation. Last year’s results included a write-off of certain information technology assets of $118 million pre-tax, 20 cents per diluted share, and a tax benefit of $91 million, 21 cents per diluted share, related to stock-based compensation, the company reported.
Costco fell short of a Yahoo-finance published analyst consensus earnings estimate of $3.11 per diluted share and a revenue estimate of $54.64 billion.
Costco posted comparable sales, sans the effect of fuel princess and foreign exchange, of 7.1% for the company, 6.5% for the United States, 8.3% in Canada and 9.1% in other international markets. E-commerce comps slipped 2%.
In a conference call, the company indicated that store traffic increased by 2.2% in the United States for the quarter while transactions increased by 6.9%.
Net sales for the quarter were $53.44 billion and revenues, including membership fees, were $54.44 billion, the company noted, versus $49.42 billion and $50.36 billion in the year-prior quarter. Operating income was $1.75 billion versus $1.69 billion in the period a year earlier.
Costco currently operates 847 warehouse clubs, including 583 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 107 in Canada, 40 in Mexico, 31 in Japan, 29 in the United Kingdom, 18 in Korea, 14 in Taiwan, 14 in Australia, four in Spain, two each in France and China, and one each in Iceland, New Zealand and Sweden. Costco also operates e-commerce websites in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Australia.
