Fast Money Blog- 3/8/24
On Thursday, March 8th, Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) reported its Q2 2024 earnings.
Quarterly revenue came in at $58.4 billion, up 5.7% year over year.
The company’s net income for the quarter was $1.74 billion, a rise of 18% from a year ago.
Here are the other important things educated investors need to know:
Membership fees, a key revenue stream, came in at $1.1 billion, up 7.7% from a year ago.
Total global same-store sales growth for the quarter was up 5.8% year-over-year.
Additionally, more shoppers came to Costco, and spent more on their shopping trips during Q2. Across the globe, traffic increased 5.3% year-over-year.
Most impressive was that Costco’s quarterly e-commerce sales grew 18.4% year-over-year.
This comes as the company is working on making its more digital savvy. In February, Costco rolled out a new mobile app homepage with faster loading speeds. This is a smart move on their part, as 60% of its e-commerce business is done using its mobile app and mobile browser.
As a reminder, Costco did raise its dividend at the end of 2023.
What we saw on Friday, post earnings was institutional profit taking after an outstanding run in the stock during the quarter.
Given rising revenue and its consistent dividend increases I have to recommend COST as a spectacular long-term hold.
On Wednesday, March 6th, Federal Reserve chair Jerome H. Powell said that he believed that interest rates are likely at their peak and if the economy evolves as they believe it will, the Fed will likely begin to lower interest rates at some point in the year.
In other good news, on Friday, March 8th the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the unemployment rate increased to 3.9% from 3.7% in January. This marks the first increase in the unemployment rate in four months, as it now is at its highest level in the last two years.
I think the market is going to pause for the next seven days and then return to its bullish pattern.
Stay open and patient.
Tyrone Jackson
The Wealthy Investor