Costco (COST) earnings Q1 2026

costco It beat Wall Street’s quarterly expectations on Thursday, reporting an 8.2% year-over-year sales increase as the retailer attracted more digital sales and opened new locations.

The warehouse club does not share a full-year outlook.

On the company’s earnings call, CFO Gary Millerchip said e-commerce gains were one of the quarter’s strengths. Digital sales increased by 20.5% year-on-year. Traffic on its website increased 24% year over year, while traffic on its app increased 48%. Same day delivery service is available at: Instacart in the USA and Uber And Door Indicator grew faster internationally than overall digital sales.

Costco also got off to a positive start to its busiest weeks of the holiday season. Millerchip said Black Friday was a record-breaking day for its warehouse club’s U.S. e-commerce business, generating more than $250 million in revenue from non-food orders.

Here’s how Costco performed in its fiscal first quarter compared to Wall Street expectations, according to a survey of LSEG analysts:

• Earnings per share: $4.50 instead of the expected $4.27
• Revenues: $67.14 billion against the expectation of $67.31 billion

Costco has attracted new members and driven higher sales at its clubs and online as U.S. consumers across income levels seek value when shopping for groceries, household goods, holiday gifts and more.

Costco has attracted young customers who sign up for memberships alongside its warehouse club rivals. Costco also benefited from a membership fee increase that goes into effect in September 2024 in the U.S. and Canada, which kicks in as new members sign up or existing customers renew their annual memberships when they expire.

Costco’s net income for the three months ended Nov. 23 rose to $2 billion, or $4.50 per share, from $1.80 billion, or $4.04 per share, in the prior-year quarter. Revenue rose to $67.31 billion, up from $62.15 billion in the same quarter last year.

Comparable sales, an industry measure that eliminates the impact of one-time factors such as store openings and closings, rose 5.9% in the U.S. and 6.4% globally.

Millerchip said that in non-food sales, pharmacy, gold and jewelry, tires, small electrical goods and clothing showed double-digit growth year over year.

Costco opened eight new warehouse clubs in the first quarter, including a relocation in Canada, its third location in France, four new locations in the U.S. and two additional Canadian business centers, CEO Ron Vachris said on the company’s earnings call. Business centers tend to sell bulk products to restaurants and other types of businesses. These additional locations bring the total number of stores to 921 worldwide.

He said the company plans to continue opening 30 or more clubs a year in the coming years.

As a warehouse club, Costco relies on membership fees to increase its revenue and help keep the price of its products low. But with higher tariffs, the retailer struggled with rising costs. About a third of Costco’s U.S. sales come from imported goods.

Millerchip said inflation “remained relatively consistent with recent quarters.” The grocery store said Costco is seeing higher inflation in commodities like beef, seafood and coffee, but that’s offset by lower inflation in eggs, cheese, butter and other products.

In non-food sectors, Costco saw low single-digit inflation for the third consecutive quarter, driven primarily by gold and imported goods, he said.

Costco is looking for ways to reduce the impact of the tariffs, including sourcing more products from the U.S., consolidating purchases around the world to lower the cost of goods, and replacing categories or products with ones that don’t incur high tariff costs, Millerchip said in its earnings release.

He said his private label, Kirkland Signature, is another way to offset tariff prices because he has more control over the supply chain.

Costco sued the Trump administration in late November to refund all of the new tariffs it has paid so far this year and to block the collection of those import taxes from the company while it awaits the Supreme Court’s decision on the taxes.

As of the end of the quarter, Costco had 81.4 million total paid members, up 5.2% year over year, and 145.9 million cardholders, up 5.1% year over year, Millerchip said. The renewal rate in the US and Canada was 92.2% and the worldwide rate was 89.7%; It fell slightly as more customers signed up for online memberships and those members renewed at a slightly lower rate.

As of Thursday’s close, Costco’s shares were down about 4% so far this year. This follows the S&P 500’s 17% gain in the same period. But over the past five years, Costco’s shares are up 141%. The company’s shares closed at $884.48 on Thursday, bringing its market value to $392.67 billion.