Costco Wholesale Corporation

How has the stock done?

Change in closing price from the first day shown, or with Price the closing price itself. Prices: Yahoo Finance, to Nov 12, 2026. Dots on the line: a member of Congress whose Hunch portfolio holds COST filed a disclosure; its hover says what the disclosure reports of COST: each trade, bought or sold, with the amount range the member filed (the House asks for a range, not the amount), or in an annual report the range of the holding’s value, the ranges of its entries added up (“in all”) where the report lists COST more than once, in several accounts or share classes: a sum that bounds the value as the ranges do but is not a range the form offers. An annual report’s row has no latest trade. Filings: the Clerk of the House. Dashed lines: the days the company released earnings (its SEC 8-K filings); EPS estimates: Yahoo Finance. The stock's move after a release runs from the last close before its day to the close the day after (or five days after), so a release before the open counts like one after the close.

Is the business growing?

In the fiscal year to Aug 2026, Food and Sundries was 39% and Non-Foods was 26% of revenue.

In the fiscal year to Aug 2026, United States was 73% and Other International was 14% of revenue.

Quarters: Costco Wholesale Corporation's SEC filings, named by the month they end. Fiscal years: Costco Wholesale Corporation's annual reports to the SEC.

How it makes money

Of every $100 in revenue, $3.0 ends up as net income. Net margin was roughly flat over the past 3 years.

Each margin is that line of the income statement divided by revenue. Fiscal year: Costco Wholesale Corporation's annual reports to the SEC; quarters: SEC filings.

Customers and suppliers

Partners

Citigroup CExclusive issuer of U.S. co-branded credit cards

Only the companies Costco Wholesale names in its 10-K filed Oct 7, 2026 (SEC). Hover a name for the filing's own words.

Is it expensive?

P/E of 52.6x, above the peer median of 17.5x, so it needs earnings to keep growing to hold up.

Priced 201% above the peer median of 17.5x.

At 52.6× trailing earnings COST is inside the middle of its five-year range; the five-year median is 47.8×.

Closing price over diluted earnings per share of the last four reported quarters, as known on each day (a quarter counts 35 days after it ends). From SEC filings; earnings per share adjusted for splits.

What analysts expect

The average analyst price target is $1,071, 2% below the current price; 63% of 41 analysts rate it a buy; earnings beat estimates in all of the last 4 quarters.

Buy or Strong Buy: 26 analysts (63%). Sell or Strong Sell: 2.

Over the past year the average of the analysts' latest price targets went from $1,074.08 to $1,083.32 (+1%), while COST went from $925.08 to $1,092.21 (+18%). In the past three months targets were raised 3 times and cut 10 times. 3 upgrades and 1 downgrade over the year; the latest: Freedom Broker moved it to Buy from Hold on Sep 8, 2026.

The day after each of these reports the stock moved +1.2% (Nov 2025, beat); +2.0% (Aug 2026, beat).

For the quarter ending Nov 2026 (Costco Wholesale reports on Dec 10, 2026), analysts expect adjusted earnings of $4.94 a share, 10% more than the $4.50 of a year earlier, and revenue of $74.3B, up 10% on a year earlier. For the fiscal year ending Aug 2027, they expect adjusted earnings of $22.81 a share, 10% more than the $20.76 of the year before, and revenue of $329.8B.

Targets, ratings and earnings estimates: Yahoo Finance. Rating and target changes: Yahoo Finance's list of upgrades and downgrades. The average target on each day is the average of every listed firm's latest target set in the 180 days before it, so it counts fewer analysts than the average target above, and the band is the middle half of those targets (a quarter of the firms are above it, a quarter below); a target set before a stock split is divided by the split. Expected figures: the average of the analysts' estimates (Yahoo Finance). Their EPS is adjusted, as analysts estimate it, so it is set against the adjusted EPS Yahoo reports for the same quarters, not the GAAP EPS of the growth and valuation sections; revenue against the SEC filings. No change is given against a quarter whose reported EPS was more than 50% off its own estimate (often a one-off gain or charge), nor against a year that counts one. Each estimate is pinned to its fiscal period by the report date or the period's end, and one that cannot be is left out.

Where the cash goes

Generated $9.4B in free cash flow over the year, of which $3.3B went back to shareholders (dividends plus buybacks), leaving $6.1B in the company.

Costco Wholesale had 444M diluted shares in the quarter ended Apr 2026, 0.1% fewer than a year earlier, and 0.03% more each year on average since Feb 2020. It spent $848M on buybacks over the last four quarters. Over the last four quarters its earnings per share rose 14.0% and its net income rose 13.9%: fewer shares added about 0 points.

Free cash flow: operating cash flow minus capital spending. Last 4 quarters: Yahoo Finance, buybacks from SEC filings where they have the quarter; by quarter: SEC filings. Shares: each quarter's diluted weighted average as filed with the SEC, since the stock's listing and its latest split.

Financial health

Current ratio 1.1, short-term debt is manageable; debt-to-equity 0.2, debt is very low and the balance sheet is solid.

Latest fiscal year balance sheet. Source: Yahoo Finance.

Who holds it

2 portfolios Hunch tracks hold COST: 1 member of Congress and 1 fund. It is 13.4% of Rob Wittman's portfolio (2.8% as filed).

• CongressRob WittmanU.S. Representative (Virginia)COST is 13% of this portfolio3% as filed+56.3%2-year backtest
• FundNan Shan Life InsuranceTaiwanese life insurerCOST is 6% of this portfolio2% as filed+29.2%2-year backtest

COST's weight in each portfolio is its target weight in the copy Hunch follows: the stocks of the latest filing that the app can trade, their weights scaled up to add to 100%. “As filed” is its weight in the filing itself: a fund’s latest 13F, or a member of Congress’s holdings from the last annual report and the trades disclosed since, each at the low end of its range. Returns are backtests based on public filings, not actual trading results. Photo credits

What did the funds Hunch tracks do?

Of the 83 funds whose 13F filings Hunch reads, 19 held COST at the end of their latest quarter (for most, Q2 2026). Over that quarter 9 added shares, 8 cut, 1 bought new and 1 held the same. The largest of them is Norges Bank, 6.47M shares worth $6.1B at Jun 30, 2026, 7.5% more than at Dec 31, 2025.

From the 13F filings of the 83 funds Hunch tracks, not of every institution: each fund's shares of COST at its latest quarter end against the quarter before, as filed (long positions only, options left out), the quarter before put on the latest quarter's share count across a split. A fund files 45 days after its quarter ends, so some have a newer quarter than others. Value is at the quarter end. Norges Bank filed its 13F for Q1 2026 confidentially, with no holdings made public, so its row compares Q2 2026 with Q4 2025.

Are insiders buying or selling?

Officers and directors sold $12.4M of COST on the open market in the 12 months to Nov 11, 2026; none bought. The largest was Claudine Adamo (Executive Vice President), who sold $2.7M in 2 sales.

From the Form 4s filed with the SEC about Costco Wholesale Corporation (46 in the 12 months): purchases (code P) and sales (code S) on the open market by its officers and directors, at the price each filing gives (often an average of the day's trades). A sale is a 10b5-1 sale when its filing says it was made under such a plan, set up in advance. Not counted: 76 other transactions (grants, shares withheld for tax, gifts and other transfers).