Costco December sales jump, top market estimates; shares leap

ISSAQUAH, WA – Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:) has announced a significant increase in its December sales, highlighting a strong performance during a key holiday period.

The company reported net sales of $27.52 billion for the five weeks ended January 5, 2025, marking a 9.9 percent rise from the $25.03 billion recorded in the previous year.

The retailer’s performance for the first eighteen weeks of its fiscal year also showed positive momentum, with net sales climbing 8.0 percent to reach $94.04 billion, up from $87.07 billion during the same period last year.

COST shares rose nearly 1% in after-hours Wednesday trade.

Comparable sales, a critical indicator of a retailer’s health, rose by 7.4 percent, surpassing the 3.7 percent consensus estimate from Consensus Metrix, which is based on an average of 10 analyst estimates.

Notably, U.S. comparable sales, when excluding the impacts of fuel prices and currency fluctuations, jumped 9.8 percent, well ahead of the 5.2 percent estimate.

E-commerce sales were notably strong in December, benefiting from an estimated 15 percentage point boost attributed to the timing of Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday.

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