Costco Stock Is Rising — Along With Its Membership Fees: What's Going On?

Costco Wholesale Corporation COST shares are trading higher in Wednesday’s after-hours session after the company reported sales results for June and announced a membership fee increase.

What Happened: After the market closed on Wednesday, Costco reported net sales of $24.48 billion for the retail month of June, up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. Net sales for the first 44 weeks of the year came in at $210.55 billion, up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis.

Total comparable sales were up 5.3% in June, while e-commerce sales jumped 18.4%. Costco's U.S. comparable sales were up 5.6% last month, Canada comparable sales were up 5.2% and Other International sales were up 4.3%.

Costco announced that it would increase its annual membership fees by $5, effective Sept. 1. Following the increase, U.S. and Canada Gold Star (individual), Business and Business add-on members will pay an annual fee of $65. Executive memberships are set to increase from $120 to $130. Costco said the fee increases will impact around 52 million memberships, half of which are Executive.

The Company also announced that its board declared a quarterly cash dividend of $1.16 per share, payable on Aug. 9 to shareholders of record as of July 26.

Costco currently operates 882 warehouses, including 609 spread across the United States.

COST Price Action: Costco shares were up 2.34% after hours at $905 at the time of publication, according to Benzinga Pro.

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