Costco (COST) ended the recent trading session at $944.70, demonstrating a -0.32% swing from the preceding day's closing price. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.61%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.28%.

The warehouse club operator's shares have seen a decrease of 1.16% over the last month, not keeping up with the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 2.32% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.08%.

The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Costco in its upcoming release. On that day, Costco is projected to report earnings of $4.07 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 9.7%. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $62.89 billion, indicating a 7.61% upward movement from the same quarter last year.

For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $18.01 per share and a revenue of $272.79 billion, signifying shifts of +11.79% and +7.21%, respectively, from the last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Costco. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has shifted 0.25% upward. At present, Costco boasts a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Investors should also note Costco's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 52.63. This denotes a premium relative to the industry's average Forward P/E of 20.63.

One should further note that COST currently holds a PEG ratio of 5.65. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Retail - Discount Stores was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.35 at yesterday's closing price.

The Retail - Discount Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 27, positioning it in the top 11% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.

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Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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