Wednesday 7 October 2026
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Costco Wholesale Corporation
COST Consumer Defensive Discount Stores
Costco Wholesale Corporation’s revenue for fiscal 2026 (year ended August 2026) was $303.2 billion, up 10.1% from fiscal 2025. Member of the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100; revenue growth for ten consecutive years, operating cash flow growth for three.
935.68
12.16
+1.32%
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Target Price Range
Analyst price targets
Free accountTen years at a glance Fiscal years to August
| Group | Line | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Trend | 2027e | 2028e | 2029e |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price, $ | |||||||||||||||
| Price, $ | Low | 150.00 | 175.79 | 199.85 | 271.28 | 307.00 | 406.51 | 447.90 | 640.51 | 844.06 | 852.50 |
Analyst estimates 2027–2029 Powerpack |
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| High | 195.35 | 245.16 | 307.34 | 393.15 | 571.49 | 612.27 | 681.91 | 1,008.25 | 1,078.23 | 1,096.50 | |||||
| People | |||||||||||||||
| People | Employees | 231,000 | 245,000 | 254,000 | 273,000 | 288,000 | 304,000 | 316,000 | 333,000 | 341,000 | — | ||||
| Revenue/emp, $m | 0.56 | 0.58 | 0.60 | 0.61 | 0.68 | 0.75 | 0.77 | 0.76 | 0.81 | 0.00 | |||||
| Income, $m | |||||||||||||||
| Income, $m | Revenue | 129,025 | 141,576 | 152,703 | 166,761 | 195,929 | 226,954 | 242,290 | 254,453 | 275,235 | 303,154 | ||||
| Gross margin, % | 13.29 | 13.01 | 12.98 | 13.09 | 12.88 | 12.15 | 12.26 | 12.61 | 12.84 | 12.82 | |||||
| EBT | 4,039 | 4,442 | 4,765 | 5,367 | 6,680 | 7,840 | 8,487 | 9,740 | 10,818 | 12,251 | |||||
| EBT margin, % | 3.13 | 3.14 | 3.12 | 3.22 | 3.41 | 3.45 | 3.50 | 3.83 | 3.93 | 4.04 | |||||
| Net income | 2,714 | 3,179 | 3,704 | 4,059 | 5,079 | 5,915 | 6,292 | 7,367 | 8,099 | 9,226 | |||||
| Depreciation | 1,370 | 1,437 | 1,492 | 1,645 | 1,781 | 1,900 | 2,077 | 2,237 | 2,426 | 2,674 | |||||
| Per share, $ | |||||||||||||||
| Per share, $ | Revenue | 294.28 | 322.85 | 347.25 | 377.03 | 442.19 | 511.56 | 545.88 | 573.20 | 619.92 | 682.85 | ||||
| Earnings | 6.11 | 7.15 | 8.32 | 9.05 | 11.30 | 13.17 | 14.18 | 16.59 | 18.24 | 20.78 | |||||
| Cash flow | 15.34 | 13.17 | 14.45 | 20.03 | 20.22 | 16.66 | 24.94 | 25.54 | 30.03 | 35.65 | |||||
| Capex | (5.71) | (6.77) | (6.82) | (6.35) | (8.10) | (8.77) | (9.74) | (10.61) | (12.38) | (14.49) | |||||
| Free cash flow | 9.63 | 6.40 | 7.64 | 13.68 | 12.12 | 7.89 | 15.20 | 14.93 | 17.65 | 21.15 | |||||
| Book value | 25.27 | 29.88 | 35.44 | 42.29 | 40.80 | 46.54 | 56.46 | 53.21 | 65.69 | 80.65 | |||||
| Shares, m | 438 | 439 | 440 | 442 | 443 | 444 | 444 | 444 | 444 | 444 | |||||
| Valuation, × | |||||||||||||||
| Valuation, × | P/E | 25.70 | 32.61 | 35.10 | 38.42 | 39.89 | 39.46 | 39.12 | 52.93 | 51.44 | 45.42 | ||||
| P/S | 0.53 | 0.72 | 0.84 | 0.92 | 1.02 | 1.01 | 1.01 | 1.53 | 1.51 | 1.38 | |||||
| P/B | 6.20 | 7.80 | 8.24 | 8.22 | 11.16 | 11.22 | 9.73 | 16.51 | 14.29 | 11.70 | |||||
| EV/Sales | 0.55 | 0.72 | 0.82 | 0.89 | 1.00 | 0.99 | 0.97 | 1.51 | 1.48 | 1.33 | |||||
| EV/FCF | 16.73 | 36.20 | 37.47 | 24.47 | 32.55 | 154.52 | 41.41 | 58.04 | 51.98 | 43.02 | |||||
| Cash, $m | |||||||||||||||
| Cash, $m | Operating cash flow | 6,726 | 5,774 | 6,356 | 8,861 | 8,958 | 7,392 | 11,068 | 11,339 | 13,335 | 15,825 | ||||
| Capex | (2,502) | (2,969) | (2,998) | (2,810) | (3,588) | (3,891) | (4,323) | (4,710) | (5,498) | (6,435) | |||||
| Free cash flow | 4,224 | 2,805 | 3,358 | 6,051 | 5,370 | 3,501 | 6,745 | 6,629 | 7,837 | 9,390 | |||||
| Balance, $m | |||||||||||||||
| Balance, $m | Working capital | (178) | 363 | 248 | 3,276 | 64 | 698 | 2,296 | (1,218) | 1,272 | 2,630 | ||||
| Total debt | 6,666 | 6,577 | 6,823 | 7,609 | 7,491 | 6,557 | 6,458 | 5,897 | 5,713 | 6,162 | |||||
| Net debt | 887 | (682) | (2,621) | (5,696) | (4,684) | (4,492) | (8,776) | (5,247) | (9,571) | (15,139) | |||||
| Shareholders’ equity | 11,079 | 13,103 | 15,584 | 18,705 | 18,078 | 20,647 | 25,058 | 23,622 | 29,164 | 35,803 | |||||
| Returns, % | |||||||||||||||
| Returns, % | ROA | 7.71 | 8.12 | 8.49 | 7.93 | 8.72 | 9.47 | 9.45 | 10.61 | 11.02 | 11.11 | ||||
| ROIC | 21.47 | 22.54 | 22.84 | 26.11 | 31.30 | 30.15 | 31.15 | 31.58 | 33.12 | 35.34 | |||||
| ROE | 22.89 | 25.92 | 25.51 | 23.34 | 27.22 | 30.18 | 27.53 | 30.27 | 30.69 | 28.40 | |||||
Negative figures in brackets.
Fiscal years to Aug 2026 · latest quarter Aug 2026 · fundamentals updated 2 Oct 2026
Charts ten years each
Costco Wholesale Corporation peers in Discount Stores
| Company | Market cap | P/E | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|
| WMT Walmart Inc. | $835.3B | 38.7× | Compare |
| TGT Target Corporation | $69.7B | 15.9× | Compare |
| DG Dollar General Corporation | $26.3B | 15.9× | Compare |
| DLTR Dollar Tree, Inc. | $21.1B | 14.2× | Compare |
| Company | Market cap | P/E | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|
| BJ BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc. | $11.9B | 20.7× | Compare |
| TBBB BBB Foods Inc. | $5.8B | 0.0× | Compare |
| PSMT PriceSmart, Inc. | $5.3B | 33.0× | Compare |
| OLLI Ollie's Bargain Outlet Holdings, Inc. | $5.2B | 19.5× | Compare |
COST metrics, ten years each
- Revenue
- Net income
- EPS (diluted)
- EBITDA
- Free cash flow
- Operating cash flow
- Gross margin
- Operating margin
- Net margin
- Free cash flow margin
- P/E ratio
- P/S ratio
- P/B ratio
- Price to free cash flow
- EV/EBITDA
- EV/Sales
- EV/FCF
- Return on equity
- Return on assets
- Return on invested capital
- Debt to equity
- Current ratio
- Total debt
- Shares outstanding
- Book value per share
- Revenue growth
- Piotroski F-score
- Altman Z-score
- Beneish M-score
Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) key facts
- Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) is a Discount Stores company in the Consumer Defensive sector, listed on Nasdaq.
- Costco Wholesale Corporation’s revenue for fiscal 2026 (year ended August 2026) was $303.2 billion, up 10.1% from fiscal 2025.
- Net income was $9.2 billion, or $20.78 per share (basic), a net margin of 3.04%.
- As of October 6, 2026, COST traded at $935.68, a market capitalization of $408.9 billion.
- At that price the stock trades at 45.0× trailing-twelve-month earnings and 1.4× sales; its P/E is higher than 72% of its own readings over the past ten years.
- Costco Wholesale Corporation pays an annual dividend of $5.54 per share, a yield of 0.59%, with a payout ratio of 26.7%.
- Return on equity was 28.4% and debt-to-equity 0.17.
- Its Piotroski F-score is 7 out of 9 and its Altman Z-score is 9.04 (safe zone) for fiscal 2026.
Financial Analysis (summary)
Updated
Costco generated $303.2 billion of revenue and $9.2 billion of net income in FY2026. Diluted EPS was $20.76 in FY2026, while operating cash flow was $15.8 billion and free cash flow was $9.4 billion in FY2026.
In Q4 FY2026, revenue was $95.7 billion, net income was $3.0 billion, and diluted EPS was $6.75. At Q4 FY2026, Costco reported −$15.1 billion of net debt, $21.3 billion of cash and short-term investments, and $35.8 billion of shareholders’ equity in FY2026.