Costco Stock Is Slipping Because Investors Wanted More Than Strong Earnings

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Costco Wholesale

stock is edging lower in late trading even as the discount retailer reported fiscal second-quarter earnings that came in ahead of expectations.

Costco (ticker: COST) earned $2.92 per share on revenue that climbed nearly 16% year over year to $51.9 billion. Analysts were looking for EPS of $2.76 on revenue of $51.53 billion.

Same-store sales climbed 11.1% excluding gasoline on an adjusted basis.

Costco stock is down 1.2% to $526 in after-hours trading.

Costco has been a major pandemic winner, but that’s also led to higher expectations. While it was a good quarter overall, investors may be pausing at February comparable sales, which were up 10.6%, which were a bit of a slowdown from January and December.

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In addition, adjusted e-commerce growth came in at 12.6% for the quarter, compared with growth of nearly 75% in the year-ago period. Although digital sales were always going to cool from pandemic highs, that figure may have come down more quickly than some expected.

Costco stock is down just over 6% since the start of the year, although it has gained more than 67% in the past 12 months.

Write to Teresa Rivas at teresa.rivas@barrons.com