Costco (COST) Stock Slides as Market Rises: Facts to Know Before You Trade
Costco (COST) closed at $907.87 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.89% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.13%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 0.55%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw a decrease of 0.52%.
Shares of the warehouse club operator witnessed a gain of 5.22% over the previous month, trailing the performance of the Retail-Wholesale sector with its gain of 8.29% and outperforming the S&P 500's gain of 3.67%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Costco in its upcoming release. The company is slated to reveal its earnings on September 26, 2024. On that day, Costco is projected to report earnings of $5.04 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 3.7%. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $79.82 billion, showing a 1.11% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.
Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Costco. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To take advantage of this, we've established the Zacks Rank, an exclusive model that considers these estimated changes and delivers an operational rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed a 0.1% increase. Costco currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Costco has a Forward P/E ratio of 51.93 right now. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 20.99.
Investors should also note that COST has a PEG ratio of 5.56 right now. 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. By the end of yesterday's trading, the Retail - Discount Stores industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.52.
The Retail - Discount Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 194, which puts it in the bottom 24% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. 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 Wholesale Corporation (COST) : Free Stock Analysis Report