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Costco (COST) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
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Costco (COST - Free Report) closed at $488.55 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.44% move from the prior day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.96%. At the same time, the Dow added 1.31%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.14%.
Heading into today, shares of the warehouse club operator had gained 3.9% over the past month, outpacing the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 6.89% and the S&P 500's loss of 0.41% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Costco as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, Costco is projected to report earnings of $3.16 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 6.4%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $55.07 billion, up 9.34% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $14.49 per share and revenue of $245.81 billion, which would represent changes of +10.27% and +8.31%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Costco. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.02% higher. Costco is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.
In terms of valuation, Costco is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 33.57. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 22.86, which means Costco is trading at a premium to the group.
It is also worth noting that COST currently has a PEG ratio of 3.27. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Retail - Discount Stores was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.09 at yesterday's closing price.
The Retail - Discount Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 44, putting it in the top 18% 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.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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Costco (COST) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
Costco (COST - Free Report) closed at $488.55 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.44% move from the prior day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.96%. At the same time, the Dow added 1.31%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.14%.
Heading into today, shares of the warehouse club operator had gained 3.9% over the past month, outpacing the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 6.89% and the S&P 500's loss of 0.41% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Costco as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, Costco is projected to report earnings of $3.16 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 6.4%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $55.07 billion, up 9.34% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $14.49 per share and revenue of $245.81 billion, which would represent changes of +10.27% and +8.31%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Costco. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.02% higher. Costco is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.
In terms of valuation, Costco is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 33.57. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 22.86, which means Costco is trading at a premium to the group.
It is also worth noting that COST currently has a PEG ratio of 3.27. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Retail - Discount Stores was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.09 at yesterday's closing price.
The Retail - Discount Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 44, putting it in the top 18% 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.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.