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Costco (COST) Stock Moves -0.78%: What You Should Know

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Costco (COST - Free Report) closed at $201.41 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.78% move from the prior day. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's 1.54% loss on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 1.49%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 2.17%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the warehouse club operator had lost 7.44% over the past month. This has lagged the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 6.13% and the S&P 500's loss of 6.77% in that time.

COST will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be March 6, 2019. In that report, analysts expect COST to post earnings of $1.67 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 17.61%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $35.49 billion, up 7.55% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $7.67 per share and revenue of $152.82 billion. These totals would mark changes of +12.3% and +7.94%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for COST. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. 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. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.39% lower. COST is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, COST currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 26.47. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 18.02.

We can also see that COST currently has a PEG ratio of 2.6. 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. Retail - Discount Stores stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.43 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Retail - Discount Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 190, which puts it in the bottom 26% 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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