Costco Wholesale Corporation reported fiscal December net sales increased 7.4 percent year-over-year to $27.5 billion, which came in significantly higher than analysts had projected for the five-week period ending January 5. Comps in the U.S. were said to be up 9. percent, excluding gasoline sales, and e-commerce jumped 35.7 percent for the period.
The jump in December was seen, in part to be due to a later Thanksgiving weekend selling in 2024 that pushed holiday sales back a week for many families.
Net sales for the first eighteen weeks of the fiscal year were $94.0 billion, an increase of 8.0 percent from $87.1 billion in the prior fiscal year year.
Comparable sales were as follows:
Comparable sales excluding the impacts from changes in gasoline prices and foreign exchange were as follows:
E-commerce sales in December were said to be positively impacted by an estimated 15 percentage points, due to Thanksgiving / Black Friday / Cyber Monday occurring a week later in 2024 versus holiday 2023. Total and comparable sales were said to be positively impacted by ~1.5 percent as a result of the shift in e-commerce sales.
JPMorgan said in a research note that the business was driven by strong expenditure by higher-income and upper-middle-class consumers.
Data, tables and image courtesy Costco Wholesale Corporation
