Costco Stock Is Trading Higher Friday: What's Going On?

Costco Wholesale Corporation COST shares are trading higher Friday after the company reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings on Thursday after the market closed.

What To Know: The company reported earnings per share of $4.28, beating the consensus estimate of $4.13. In addition, it reported sales of $63.20 billion, beating the consensus estimate of $63.19 billion, and representing a 8% year-over-year growth.

Costco reported a 5.7% year-over-year increase in total comparable sales. Breaking it down by region, U.S. comparable sales rose 6.6%, Canada saw a 2.9% increase and other international markets were up 3.2%.

Membership fee revenue reached $1.24 billion, up from $1.12 billion in the same quarter last year.

An executive during Costco’s earnings call reportedly announced that the company pulled forward certain summer goods and increased its sourcing of locally produced items to help offset the impact of tariffs. Additionally, the company rerouted many products from high-tariff countries to non-U.S. markets.

Following the earnings report, Telsey Advisory Group analyst Joseph Feldman maintained an Outperform rating on Costco and maintained a $1100 price target.

In the note, Feldman said Costco's strong third quarter and 5.2% traffic growth signal market share gains, adding that the company is managing tariffs well and taking steps to drive future growth.

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COST Price Action: At the time of writing, Costco stock is trading 4.06% higher at $1,049.92, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

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