Warehouse club giant tops estimates in August

Costco Wholesale Corp. turned in a strong performance in August, helped by a big increase in online sales.



Net sales rose 10% to $9.8 billion for the month of August, from $8.9 billion during the similar period last year. Total same-store sales rose 7.3%, higher than the 6.1% Wall Street expected. Same-store U.S. sales rose 7.4%, easily topping estimates for a 4.9% to 5.3% increase. Costco's comparable e-commerce sales jumped 26% in August.



"In recent months, Costco has experienced an improvement in online sales due to various factors including an improved merchandise selection, member value, greater website awareness, reduced delivery times and a better user experience," Barclays analyst Karen Short said in a research note on Thursday, reported The Street.



For the first 52 weeks of its 53-week fiscal year ended Aug. 27, Costco reported net sales of $123.5 billion, an increase of 6.4%. Same-store sales for that period increased by 4.3%.



Costco opened its ninth warehouse in Australia on August 31, 2017, and will open its 26th warehouse in Japan later this week. The company will end its fiscal year on September 3rd with 741 warehouses in operation, including 514 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 97 in Canada, 37 in Mexico, 28 in the United Kingdom, 26 in Japan, 13 in Korea, 13 in Taiwan, nine in Australia, two in Spain, one in Iceland and one in France.