Costco Shares Jump After Strong Q2 Revenue Beat, Analysts Raise Price Targets

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Shares of Costco Wholesale Corp (NASDAQ: COST) rose in early trading on Friday, after the company Thursday reported upbeat fiscal second-quarter revenues.

Here are the key analyst insights:

  • Telsey Advisory Group analyst Joseph Feldman maintained an Outperform rating, while raising the price target from $1,100 to $1,125.
  • JPMorgan analyst Christopher Horvers reiterated an Overweight rating, while lifting the price target from $1,050 to $1,060.
  • DA Davidson analyst Michael Baker reiterated a Neutral rating and price target of $1,000.
Telsey Advisory Group: Costco saw total sales grow by 9.2% to $69.6 billion. The wholesale retailer topped the consensus of $69.3 billion. It also recorded a comp of 7.4%, beating the consensus of 6.3%.

"The retail gross margin expanded 17 bps to 11%, with the core-on-core product margin up 22 bps, fueled by all categories, especially Food & Sundries and Non-Foods," Feldman wrote. Membership fee income grew 13.6% to $1.36 billion, coming in above expectations of $1.33 billion, he further stated.

JPMorgan: Costco saw February US core comp of 6%, strong share gains, and earnings growth of 14% year-on-year. The company's comp performance reflects "consistent underlying member behavior," with inflation easing, he added.

US core comp of 6.4% was driven by traffic and ticket growth, the analyst stated. Costco's core business remains strong, and the company has "a long unit growth runway and opportunity to grow share of wallet online (grocery and gen merch), as well as fuel from advertising revenues and improving e-commerce profitability to drive modest margin expansion," he further wrote.

DA Davidson: Costco posted another strong quarter against elevated expectations, Baker said. US comp grew 6.0% in February, similar to 6.8% in January and up 14.6% on a two-year basis, he added.

Membership was an area of strength, which included "an acceleration in membership fee income, better trends in renewal rates and continued increases in executive penetration," the analyst wrote. Paid membership grew 4.8%, which marks a slight deceleration from the 5%-7% reported over the last few quarters, "but in the ballpark," he further stated.

COST Price Action: Shares of Costco Wholesale had risen by 1.46% to $996.92 at the time of publication on Friday.