Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) to Post Q1 2025 Earnings of $4.08 Per Share, Roth Capital Forecasts

Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) – Analysts at Roth Capital cut their Q1 2025 earnings estimates for Costco Wholesale in a research report issued on Friday, September 27th. Roth Capital analyst W. Kirk now expects that the retailer will post earnings per share of $4.08 for the quarter, down from their prior forecast of $4.11. The consensus estimate for Costco Wholesale’s current full-year earnings is $16.02 per share. Roth Capital also issued estimates for Costco Wholesale’s Q2 2025 earnings at $4.32 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $4.32 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $19.17 EPS.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The retailer reported $5.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.05 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $79.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $79.91 billion. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.83% and a return on equity of 30.02%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $4.86 earnings per share.

COST has been the subject of several other reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $800.00 to $850.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $915.00 to $925.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $980.00 target price (up from $950.00) on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $915.00 to $925.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $925.00 to $955.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $883.04.

Costco Wholesale Price Performance

NASDAQ:COST opened at $877.38 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $388.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.36, a PEG ratio of 5.47 and a beta of 0.80. Costco Wholesale has a one year low of $540.23 and a one year high of $923.83. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $871.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $819.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.45.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Costco Wholesale

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in COST. Strong Tower Advisory Services boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 7.9% in the 1st quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services now owns 1,867 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,346,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares during the last quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 52.1% in the 2nd quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 7,645 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $6,499,000 after purchasing an additional 2,620 shares during the last quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 22.8% in the 2nd quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 3,533 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,003,000 after purchasing an additional 656 shares during the last quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 30.8% in the 2nd quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,596 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $4,757,000 after purchasing an additional 1,319 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aspiriant LLC boosted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 6.1% in the 1st quarter. Aspiriant LLC now owns 2,327 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,705,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Costco Wholesale

In other news, Director Susan L. Decker sold 620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $876.50, for a total value of $543,430.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 11,775 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,320,787.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Costco Wholesale news, Director Kenneth D. Denman sold 350 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $851.53, for a total transaction of $298,035.50. Following the sale, the director now owns 5,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,041,057.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Susan L. Decker sold 620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $876.50, for a total transaction of $543,430.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 11,775 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,320,787.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 4,974 shares of company stock valued at $4,252,856. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Costco Wholesale Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 9th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 26th were issued a $1.16 dividend. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 26th. Costco Wholesale’s payout ratio is 28.75%.

About Costco Wholesale

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.