Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST – Analyst Report) reported its fourth-quarter fiscal 2015 results after the bell today. Costco investors were hoping for a continuation of the recent earnings success seen by the company, as Costco has outperformed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by an average of 6% in the trailing four quarters.

However, we know from recent numbers that comparable-store sales have been a concern lately. Comps fell 2% in August, stayed flat in July, and fell 1% in June. Lower gasoline prices have factored into US comps, while currency headwinds hurt international comps.

Coming into today, Costco has seen some negative earnings estimate revision activity, and the stock had an Earnings ESP of -1.21%. This represents the difference between the Most Accurate estimate, which is an average of the most recent earnings estimates (and was at $1.64/share), and the Zacks Consensus Estimate, which was at $1.66/share so some weren’t too optimistic.

Currently, Costco holds a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), although we could see movement in the rankings following today’s earnings results. We’ve highlighted some of the key stats from today’s just released report below:

Earnings: Costco beat on earnings for Q4. COST posted EPS of $1.72/share compared to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.66 per share.

Revenue: Net sales came in at $34.99 billion which missed the estimate. The consensus estimate of $36.26 billion was a bit high and COST struggled thanks to lower gas prices, though excluding this, sales were solid for comparables.  

Key Stats to Note: Revenue membership hit $785 million in the quarter which was up from $768 million in the same period a year ago. For the full year, this key metric was up 4.3% year-over-year. 

Share Price: Shares of COST were flat during regular trading hours and were down roughly 1% in after hours trading. 

 

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