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Costco (COST) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
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In the latest trading session, Costco (COST - Free Report) closed at $211.46, marking a +0.61% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.76% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 0.67%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.71%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the warehouse club operator had gained 4.35% over the past month. This has outpaced the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 2.28% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.75% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from COST as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be March 6, 2019. In that report, analysts expect COST to post earnings of $1.65 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 16.2%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $35.64 billion, up 8% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $7.66 per share and revenue of $152.94 billion, which would represent changes of +12.15% and +8.03%, respectively, from the prior year.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for COST should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature 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.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.1% higher. COST is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Digging into valuation, COST currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 27.45. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 19.45, so we one might conclude that COST is trading at a premium comparatively.
Investors should also note that COST has a PEG ratio of 2.75 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Retail - Discount Stores was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.53 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 165, putting it in the bottom 36% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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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Costco (COST) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, Costco (COST - Free Report) closed at $211.46, marking a +0.61% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.76% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 0.67%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.71%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the warehouse club operator had gained 4.35% over the past month. This has outpaced the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 2.28% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.75% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from COST as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be March 6, 2019. In that report, analysts expect COST to post earnings of $1.65 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 16.2%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $35.64 billion, up 8% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $7.66 per share and revenue of $152.94 billion, which would represent changes of +12.15% and +8.03%, respectively, from the prior year.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for COST should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature 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.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.1% higher. COST is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Digging into valuation, COST currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 27.45. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 19.45, so we one might conclude that COST is trading at a premium comparatively.
Investors should also note that COST has a PEG ratio of 2.75 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Retail - Discount Stores was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.53 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 165, putting it in the bottom 36% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.