ISSAQUAH – Discount retailing giant Costco Wholesale Corp. said Thursday that profits grew 21 percent in its fiscal first quarter, thanks to higher sales and more revenue from membership fees.
For its first quarter ended Nov. 21, the Issaquah company reported earnings of $193.2 million or 40 cents a share, up from $160.2 million or 34 cents a share in the same period of 2003.
Sales for the three-month period rose 10 percent to $11.34 billion, up from $10.31 billion in the same period a year ago.
Costco’s profit results met Wall Street expectations, but the company’s revenue for the three-month period fell short of the $11.57 billion analysts had expected. Shares in the company, which had been trading near a 52-week high of $50.46, fell $1.22 or 2.5 percent to $47.68 in early trading Thursday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Same-store sales, which look at Costco warehouses that have been open at least a year, rose 7 percent from the same period last year. But the company said this quarter’s sales figures were affected by a change in accounting rules that alters the way the company reports sales on special coupon promotions. Without that change, comparable net sales would have risen 11 percent, and same-store sales would have risen 8 percent.
The change affects sales and merchandise costs equally, so profits were not affected.
Costco operates 449 warehouses in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, United Kingdom, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Mexico.
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