The market is set for a lower open this morning, and one of the stocks that will be contributing to the slow start will be warehouse retailer Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) which is currently trading down slightly over 6% in today's pre-market action. The company announced its fiscal Q1 earnings this morning and was unable to beat analyst estimates, despite an 11% increase in quarterly profit. For the entire quarter the company showed earnings per share of 59 cents, which was in-line with what analysts had been expecting to see going into today's report.
Despite not being able to outpace analyst estimates for earnings, the company had a pretty good quarter overall. If you take a look at revenues, you see a very respectable jump of 12% in the quarter, which is a great increase, but once again, in-line with analyst estimates.
One of the things that I look for when evaluating retailers is the same stores information. Once again, the company put up good numbers in this arena as well, with a 5% rise in same store sales, and a very respectable jump of 17% when looking at same store growth internationally, with this large increase being fueled by favorable currency exchange rates. This comes on the heels of last month when the company reported same-store sales rose 9% from a year earlier.
All in all, it wasn't that bad of a report this morning. While early morning traders have been punishing the stock, I would not be surprised at all to see shares trading much higher than they are currently trading once the trading day gets under way.
Eliza Popescu is a financial writer for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.
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