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COCOST

Costco Wholesale Corporation

$COST·$420B·Discount Stores·Consumer Defensive
$989.11+1.1%YTD+13.6%1Y+6.9%
Price updated 7h ago·X counts updated 5d ago
COCOST
$COSTCostco Wholesale Corporation
$989.11+1.13%822 posts1.2×
AI analysisFundamentalsVoices on X
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On X

Top X posts

The complete picture of $COST on X — how loud the conversation is right now, how it has trended over the last two weeks, and which way the crowd is leaning.

822X posts · last 7 days
Sep 29Oct 11
Chatter Meter
1.2×
QuietNormal · 1×Loud

How loud $COST's conversation on X is versus its own normal — 1× is typical, higher means busier. Right now it's about its usual level, louder than 89% of tracked names.

Mixed sentimentAI analysisGenerated by AI from underlying data18 posts analyzed · as of 2026-10-02

Sentiment is split after a mixed fiscal 2026 close — revenue beat ($95.7B vs $94.9B expected), comps up 9.4%, digital up 19.5%, and bulls are pointing at the bullish engulfing candle on 2.86M shares as the oversold-bounce signal. The structural bear voice is the third straight quarter of membership-fee deceleration (fee income +7.3%), and COST now sits on the 52-week-lows watchlist. The debate is "comp growth vs membership-engine fatigue."

Read what X is saying about $COST

  • Bullish vs bearish call — with the AI summary of the day's posts
  • Divergence flag when the top-engagement posts argue the other side
  • How loud the conversation is versus this ticker's own normal
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AI verdictAI analysisGenerated by AI from underlying data

TickerTalks' own read on what's driving $COST — fundamentals, momentum, or an event — and whether it agrees with the X crowd.

Proven numbersWinding up for a moveAI verdict · as of 2026-10-02

Trading in a tight range and building pressure — a move looks likely soon, but the direction isn't clear yet.

Costco posted a fifth straight beat — and the stock is still in the lower third of its 52-week range.

Costco is the warehouse-club retailer that turns a 3-4% operating margin into one of the most consistent compounder stories in retail. The core engine is membership fees — subscription revenue that doesn't blink.

  • The business is still comping high-single-digits: FY26 revenue $95.7B with same-club sales up 9.4% and digital +19.5% — rare, consistent, and roughly 10x higher than peer-grocery comps.
  • The hesitation is membership-fee income decelerating for a third straight quarter — not shrinking, just slowing — and at 48x earnings there's no multiple cushion if that compression continues.
  • 52-week range position is 28% — even after the strong print the stock has not broken out, which is why this remains a buy-on-pullback name whose last pullback hasn't been fully bought back yet.

Dec 10 is the next read — membership-renewal commentary and the FY27 opening cadence are the real signals. Reacceleration in fee income breaks the stock to new highs; a fourth consecutive deceleration and the 48x multiple keeps compressing.

Agrees with X sentimentThe crowd has the right read on the beat and the bullish-engulfing chart — but it is underweighting the third straight deceleration in membership-fee income that the lone skeptic flagged, which is the one metric that caps the multiple.

What to watch: Dec 10 Q1 earnings — membership-fee income growth and renewal rates by cohort, plus any fuel-margin headwinds. A fourth straight fee-growth deceleration is the clear negative.

On the calendar: 2026-12-10 — Q1 earnings

Read the AI verdict on $COST

  • One-line verdict on what's driving the move — fundamentals, momentum, both, or an event
  • Next dated catalyst when there is one (earnings, deal closing, activist clock)
  • Whether TickerTalks' read agrees with or diverges from the X crowd
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What it does

Plain-English summary of the business — what they sell and how they make money.

Membership-based warehouse retailer whose ~$5B in annual membership fees drive high-margin recurring revenue atop a high-volume merchandise business.

Industry overviewAI analysisGenerated by AI from underlying data

Where Discount Stores sits in its cycle right now — and what that implies for $COST.

Discount Stores · Consumer Defensive

No material change from last week — Consumer value-seeking is structurally shifting share to discount and warehouse formats.

What this means for $COST

Partial — Membership-based warehouse retailer whose ~$5B in annual membership fees drive high-margin recurring revenue atop a high-volume merchandise business.

Top industry ETF

$XRTSPDR S&P Retail ETF
-4.3%YTD
+3.6%1Y

Fundamentals & catalyst

Profitability, valuation, and the next earnings event — at a glance, with rule-of-thumb signals.

Key ratios

P/E
48.8How much investors are paying per dollar of profit the company actually earned in the last 12 months. Lower means the stock looks cheaper relative to earnings.~15–25 is typical for the S&P 500; high-growth names trade 30+; hyper-growth or speculative can be 100+ or negative.
ROIC
19.1%What percentage return the business earns on every dollar of capital (equity + debt) deployed in operations. The cleanest measure of business quality.Above ~15% is high-quality; consistently above 25% suggests a real moat. Below the company's cost of capital is value-destroying.
Op margin
3.8%Operating profit (after sales, marketing, R&D, and overhead but before interest and taxes) as a percentage of revenue. The clearest view of how well the underlying business is run.Mature business above 20% is healthy; software businesses can run 30%+; commodity / retail businesses operate in single digits.
FCF yield
2.0%Free cash flow (operating cash flow minus capex) divided by the company's market cap. The cash-on-cash return you'd get owning the whole business at today's price.Above ~5% is attractive; below ~2% means you're paying up for growth. Capital-light businesses (software) run higher than capital-heavy ones (utilities).
P/S
1.5Same idea as P/E but per dollar of revenue. Useful for companies that aren't profitable yet, where P/E is meaningless.Under ~2 is cheap; software / SaaS often runs 8–15; well above 20 implies the market is pricing in very high future growth.
ROE
28.3%Net income as a percentage of shareholders' equity. Similar to ROIC but counts only the equity side.Above 20% is strong, but can be inflated by leverage — a heavily indebted company can show high ROE with weak underlying ROIC.
Gross margin
12.9%Revenue minus the direct cost of producing what was sold, as a percentage of revenue. The first read on whether the product is structurally profitable.Software / SaaS is typically 70%+; consumer goods 30–50%; commodity / hardware businesses can be under 20%.
D/E
0.2Total debt divided by shareholders' equity. Measures how much the business runs on borrowed money versus owner capital.Under 1 is conservative; 1–2 is typical for mature businesses; over 2 is leveraged and more sensitive to interest rates.

Past earnings

QuarterReportedActualEstimateSurprise
Q2 2026Sep 24, 2026$6.75$6.54+3.2%
Q1 2026May 28, 2026$4.93$5.00-1.4%
Q4 2025Mar 5, 2026$4.58$4.55+0.7%
Q3 2025Dec 11, 2025$4.50$4.27+5.4%
Next earningsThu, Dec 10·consensus EPS $4.93

Quarterly trend

QuarterRevenueYoYGrossOpEPSFCF
Q3 FY26$70.5B+11.6%12.8%4.0%$4.94$2.0B
Q2 FY26$69.6B+9.2%12.8%3.7%$4.58$1.7B
Q1 FY26$67.3B+8.3%13.1%3.7%$4.51$3.2B
Q4 FY25$86.2B+8.1%12.9%3.9%$5.88$1.9B

Forward consensus

10-year forecast · up to 26 analysts
FYRevenueRangeEPSRangeAnalysts
FY26$302.3B$299.3B – $303.7B$20.52$20.23 – $20.7026
FY27$328.8B$325.0B – $336.2B$22.79$21.92 – $24.7925
FY27$327.1B$318.6B – $333.0B$22.67$21.86 – $23.2124
FY28$353.9B$349.0B – $359.2B$25.06$23.96 – $25.7922
FY28$350.9B$339.6B – $367.2B$24.95$23.74 – $26.9520
FY29$377.7B$363.9B – $390.7B$27.42$26.69 – $28.3412
FY29$373.8B$365.6B – $383.7B$27.07$25.91 – $28.366
FY30$404.9B$394.3B – $415.1B$29.80$28.78 – $30.779
FY30$394.2B$383.1B – $404.5B$28.48$27.43 – $29.454
FY31$437.1B$425.6B – $448.0B$32.63$31.52 – $33.695

Setup & momentum

Volume, range, and moving-average position — the technical setup driving short-term moves.

Right now

Vol vs 30dToday's traded share volume divided by the average over the prior 30 trading days. ≥3× signals unusual interest; below 1× is quiet.1.0×Today's traded share volume divided by the average over the prior 30 trading days. ≥3× signals unusual interest; below 1× is quiet.
52w rangeWhere the latest close sits between the 52-week low (0%) and high (100%). Above 80% is extended; below 30% is basing or in a downtrend.57%Where the latest close sits between the 52-week low (0%) and high (100%). Above 80% is extended; below 30% is basing or in a downtrend.
vs 50d MALatest close vs the 50-day simple moving average. Positive = short-term trend is up.+5.9%Latest close vs the 50-day simple moving average. Positive = short-term trend is up.
vs 200d MALatest close vs the 200-day simple moving average. Positive = long-term trend is up.+2.4%Latest close vs the 200-day simple moving average. Positive = long-term trend is up.

Float & profile

FloatHigh float · 442.3M shFree-float shares — the slice of issued stock actually available to trade. Lower buckets squeeze harder on a catalyst.Traded today0.5% of floatToday's volume as a percent of the free float. Above 5% on a single day is unusually high turnover for the available share count.β0.875-year weekly beta vs the S&P 500. Above 1.5 means the stock typically moves more than the index; below 0.8 moves less.

Insider activity

Recent open-market buys and sells by officers and directors — flagged when multiple insiders cluster.

Recent transactions

SellOct 13Wilcox William RichardPresident1.1K sh$1.1MSellSep 29Caton FratesPresident801 sh$733KSellSep 29Claudine AdamoPresident2.2K sh$2.0MSellJun 23Kenneth D DenmanDirector885 sh$847K
+ 15 other (7 awards · 7 inkinds · 1 gift) in window

See when $COST insiders are putting their own money in

  • Real-time open-market buys and sells from Form 4 filings
  • Cluster-buy detection when multiple insiders pile in at once
  • 30 / 60 / 180-day windows so you can spot building conviction
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SEC filings

Material 8-K, 13D, S-3, and 424B5 events from the last 180 days — the filings that actually move the price.

Recent material filings

3/ANew insider — initial holdingsSep 303/A
AI summary

Adam Webb Self filed an amended Form 3 beneficial ownership statement for COSTCO WHOLESALE CORP /NEW (COST) on 2026-09-30, reporting their status as a Executive Vice President. This is an administrative Section 16 disclosure required when a new insider (director, officer, or 10% holder) first reports their holdings; it signals a change in the company's executive or governance structure rather than a market transaction.

3New insider — initial holdingsSep 103
AI summary

Adam Webb Self, EVP at Costco Wholesale (COST), filed a Form 3 disclosing initial ownership of 3,526.832 shares: 800 shares directly owned and approximately 2,726.578 unvested RSUs vesting in October 2026 and 2027.

S-3ASRAuto-shelf registrationJun 3S-3ASR
AI summary

COSTCO WHOLESALE CORPORATION (COST) filed an automatic shelf registration statement (S-3ASR) with the SEC. The registration establishes a shelf to offer debt securities from time to time. As an S-3ASR (automatic shelf), this registration is immediately effective upon filing — a privilege reserved for well-known seasoned issuers (WKSIs) with large public floats. The shelf registration does not commit the company to any specific offering but provides flexible capital markets access for future transactions.

3/ANew insider — initial holdingsMay 153/A
AI summary

Form filed by More than One Reporting Person Table I - Non-De filed a Form 3/A (amended) for COST on 2026-05-15, initiating required Section 16 reporting. Role: of Reporting Person. Beneficial ownership covers 578 shares. Form 3 is a mandatory administrative filing upon first becoming an insider or 10%+ holder; it does not reflect a purchase or sale event.

+ 8 other (2 earnings 8-Ks · 1 10-K · 1 routine 8-K · 1 11-K) in window

Recent news

Latest headlines from major outlets, sourced and timestamped — context for whatever just moved.

Costco (COST) Rises As Market Takes a Dip: Key Factszacks.com·9h agoIs COST a Buy as Strong Growth Meets a Premium Earnings Valuation?zacks.com·14h agoFundamental and Technicals Signals Align for Costco: Is the Stock Finally Breaking Out?marketbeat.com·16h agoWhy a 62-Year-Old With $280,000 Saved Will Push Carts at Costco Instead of Writing a $1,100-a-Month Check for Health Insurance247wallst.com·18h agoWhat the Latest Fed Decision Means for Costco, Walmart, Target, and Home Depotfool.com·18h ago

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TickerTalks is a research tool, not financial advice. We surface social-attention data; we do not make stock recommendations. Past attention is not predictive of future price movements.

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