Costco (COST) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know
Costco (COST) closed the most recent trading day at $429.67, moving +1.03% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.54%.
Heading into today, shares of the warehouse club operator had gained 7.79% over the past month, outpacing the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 2.16% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.05% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from COST as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect COST to post earnings of $3.38 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 7.99%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $60.08 billion, up 12.55% from the year-ago period.
COST's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $10.48 per share and revenue of $193.15 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +18.42% and +15.82%, respectively.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for COST. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.72% higher within the past month. COST is holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now.
Digging into valuation, COST currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 40.56. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 24.76, which means COST is trading at a premium to the group.
Investors should also note that COST has a PEG ratio of 4.44 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Retail - Discount Stores industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.02 as of yesterday's close.
The Retail - Discount Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 26, which puts it in the top 11% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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