Membership-only warehouse club operating worldwide offering broad selection of merchandise at low prices to members.
Profile & Fundamentals
Costco Wholesale: Company identity, ownership, reported financial performance, balance sheets, and corporate actions.
Profile & Fundamentals
Costco Wholesale Profile & Fundamentals
Examine company identity, ownership, reported performance, valuation, balance-sheet resilience, dividends, buybacks, and material corporate events.
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Company and Market Context
Company Profile & Ownership
Costco Wholesale Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the operation of membership warehouses in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Japan, the United Kingdom, Korea, Australia, Taiwan, China, Spain, France, Iceland, New Zealand, and Sweden. It offers merchandise, including sundries, dry groceries, candies, coolers, freezers, deli, liquor, and tobacco; non-food merchandise comprising appliances, small electronics, health and beauty aids, hardware, lawn and garden, sporting goods, tires, toys and seasonal, automotive, stamps, tickets, apparel, furniture, domestics, housewares, special order kiosks, and jewelry; and fresh food, such as meat, produce, service deli, and bakery products. The company is also involved in warehouse ancillary operations, which include gasoline, pharmacies, optical, food courts, hearing-aid centers, and tire installation centers. In addition, it engages in e-commerce, business centers, travel, and other businesses. The company was formerly known as Costco Companies, Inc. and changed its name to Costco Wholesale Corporation in August 1999. Costco Wholesale Corporation was founded in 1976 and is based in Issaquah, Washington.
Company profile record
Costco Wholesale Corp
Common Stock · Consumer Staples · Consumer Staples Merchandise Retail
Company
- Company / asset
- Costco Wholesale Corp
- Security type
- Common Stock
- Sector
- Consumer Staples
- Industry
- Consumer Staples Merchandise Retail
- HQ
- 🇺🇸 United States
- Head office
- 999 Lake Drive, Issaquah, WA, United States, 98027
Leadership & scale
- Chief executive
- Mr. Ron M. Vachris
- CEO year born
- 1965
- Full-time employees
- 341K
- Fiscal year end
- August
- IPO date
- 1993-09-22
Fundamentals snapshot
- Market Cap
- USD 415.8B
- P/E
- 45.1x
- Revenue (Q3 26)
- USD 95.7B
- Profit (Q3 26)
- USD 3.0B
- Dividend Yield
- 0.4%
- Revenue (FY 26)
- USD 303.2B
- Shares in public float
- 442.4M
- Insider ownership
- 0.16%
Reporting & identifiers
- Symbol
- COST.NASDAQ
- Listing
- 🇺🇸 United States | Dividend Tax: 30%
- Ticker Currency
- USD
- Income Statement Currency
- USD
- Balance Sheet Currency
- USD
- Cash Flow Currency
- USD
- EPS Currency
- USD
- Contract Type
- SPOT
- ISIN
- US22160K1051
- Asset ID
- equity_db49741d-aa9e-525e-92e4-4b0b4f0bda19
Ownership
Shares Outstanding
Latest: 444.4M | Max: 445.0M | Min: 440.9M
Latest reported ownership snapshot
As of Oct 1, 2026Float Shares
99.55%
442.4M latest reported shares
Insider Ownership
0.16%
Latest reported insider stake
Short Float
0.02%
Latest reported short interest / float
Top Holders
Source tablesView ownership tables
Shares Outstanding
Annual reported shares outstanding; up to 10 reporting dates.
Scroll the table to see every column.
| Reporting date | Shares outstanding |
|---|---|
| 2017-01-01 | 440,851,000 |
| 2018-01-01 | 442,749,000 |
| 2019-01-01 | 443,680,000 |
| 2020-01-01 | 444,386,000 |
| 2021-01-01 | 444,604,000 |
| 2022-01-01 | 444,531,000 |
| 2023-01-01 | 444,403,000 |
| 2024-01-01 | 444,977,000 |
| 2025-01-01 | 443,919,000 |
| 2026-01-01 | 444,364,000 |
Top Holders
Available reported ownership records.
Scroll the table to see every column.
| Holder | Shares | Ownership | Reported date |
|---|---|---|---|
| BlackRock Inc | 34,947,040 | 7.88% | 2026-03-31 |
| Vanguard Capital Management, LLC | 28,847,448 | 6.5% | 2026-03-31 |
| State Street Corp | 18,152,232 | 4.09% | 2026-03-31 |
| Vanguard MStar Total Stk Mkt Idx Invest | 14,098,650 | 3.18% | 2026-08-31 |
| Amvescap Plc. | 13,629,248 | 3.07% | 2026-03-31 |
| Vanguard 500 Index Investor | 11,784,377 | 2.66% | 2026-08-31 |
| Vanguard Portfolio Management, LLC | 10,705,635 | 2.41% | 2026-03-31 |
| Geode Capital Management, LLC | 10,659,224 | 2.4% | 2026-03-31 |
| Morgan Stanley - Brokerage Accounts | 9,898,711 | 2.23% | 2026-03-31 |
| Invesco QQQ Trust | 9,543,905 | 2.15% | 2026-08-31 |
| Bank of America Corp | 7,515,031 | 1.69% | 2026-03-31 |
| FMR Inc | 6,718,589 | 1.52% | 2026-03-31 |
| NORGES BANK | 6,474,767 | 1.46% | 2026-06-30 |
| iShares Core S&P 500 ETF | 5,907,963 | 1.33% | 2026-08-31 |
| Fidelity 500 Index | 5,736,898 | 1.29% | 2026-07-31 |
Earnings, Profitability & Valuation
Earnings, Profitability & Valuation
Earnings & Revenue
Earnings and Revenue Trajectory
AI Review
Costco's earnings picture reflects steady, reliable expansion powered by its unique warehouse membership structure. For the trailing twelve months through May 2026, revenue reached $294 billion, while net income climbed to $8.84 billion, supported by consistent mid-single-digit comparable store traffic and the compounding benefit of the September 2024 membership fee increase. This growth is exceptionally high quality because membership fees provide an unbreakable profit floor, insulating the bottom line from merchandising cost swings. Free cash flow generation of $8.81 billion closely matches reported net income, proving that earnings reflect genuine cash rather than accounting maneuvers. However, headline comp figures were partly flattered by gasoline price spikes, which add top-line volume with thin per-gallon profits. Once fuel prices normalize, underlying earnings will track organic warehouse throughput.
Costco's earnings picture reflects steady, reliable expansion powered by its unique warehouse membership structure. For the trailing twelve months through May 2026, revenue reached $294 billion, while net income climbed to $8.84 billion, supported by consistent mid-single-digit comparable store traffic and the compounding benefit of the September 2024 membership fee increase. This growth is exceptionally high quality because membership fees provide an unbreakable profit floor, insulating the bottom line from merchandising cost swings. Free cash flow generation of $8.81 billion closely matches reported net income, proving that earnings reflect genuine cash rather than accounting maneuvers. However, headline comp figures were partly flattered by gasoline price spikes, which add top-line volume with thin per-gallon profits. Once fuel prices normalize, underlying earnings will track organic warehouse throughput.
Revenue, Net Income, and Free Cash Flow
Latest: USD 303.2B | Max: USD 303.2B | Min: USD 2.7B
Valuation
P/E Ratio (TTM)iPublished valuation snapshots use the earnings basis recorded with each observation. Source tables retain that basis.
Latest: 52x
Profitability & Margins
Margins and Operating Efficiency
AI Review
Costco's razor-thin profit margins are not an operational weakness; they represent an intentional, engineered competitive weapon. Gross margins hover near 12.8% and operating margins hold steady around 3.8%, reflecting management's strict covenant capping product markups at fourteen percent. Any purchasing scale efficiencies are immediately passed back to members as lower shelf prices. This deliberate margin ceiling makes the business virtually impossible for conventional supermarkets to undercut. Instead of taking retail markups, Costco collects its profit through membership fees, which drop straight to operating income. This structure ensures that net margins near 2.9% remain remarkably durable across inflation and recession cycles alike.
Costco's razor-thin profit margins are not an operational weakness; they represent an intentional, engineered competitive weapon. Gross margins hover near 12.8% and operating margins hold steady around 3.8%, reflecting management's strict covenant capping product markups at fourteen percent. Any purchasing scale efficiencies are immediately passed back to members as lower shelf prices. This deliberate margin ceiling makes the business virtually impossible for conventional supermarkets to undercut. Instead of taking retail markups, Costco collects its profit through membership fees, which drop straight to operating income. This structure ensures that net margins near 2.9% remain remarkably durable across inflation and recession cycles alike.
Profitability Margins
Latest: 12.8% | Max: 13.3% | Min: 2.1%
Latest Profitability Ratios as of 2026-08-31
Gross Margin
12.8%
Gross profit / revenue
Operating Margin
3.9%
Operating income / revenue
Net Margin
3.0%
Net income / revenue
FCF Margin
3.1%
Free cash flow / revenue
Source tablesView earnings, profitability & valuation tables
Revenue, Net Income, and Free Cash Flow
Annual reported results, using the source statement's recorded USD conversion. Up to 10 reporting periods; missing values are not estimated.
Scroll the table to see every column.
| Period end | Revenue (USD) | Net income (USD) | Free cash flow (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-08-31 | 129,025,000,000 | 2,679,000,000 | 4,224,000,000 |
| 2018-08-31 | 141,576,000,000 | 3,134,000,000 | 2,805,000,000 |
| 2019-08-31 | 152,703,000,000 | 3,659,000,000 | 3,358,000,000 |
| 2020-08-31 | 166,761,000,000 | 4,002,000,000 | 6,051,000,000 |
| 2021-08-31 | 195,929,000,000 | 5,007,000,000 | 5,370,000,000 |
| 2022-08-31 | 226,954,000,000 | 5,844,000,000 | 3,501,000,000 |
| 2023-08-31 | 242,290,000,000 | 6,292,000,000 | 6,745,000,000 |
| 2024-08-31 | 254,453,000,000 | 7,367,000,000 | 6,629,000,000 |
| 2025-08-31 | 275,235,000,000 | 8,099,000,000 | 7,837,000,000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 303,154,000,000 | 9,226,000,000 | 9,390,000,000 |
Published P/E Ratio
Published valuation snapshots retain each observation's earnings basis.
Scroll the table to see every column.
| Period end | P/E (times earnings) | Earnings basis |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-08-31 | 51.7 | Trailing four quarters |
| 2024-08-31 | 53.9 | Trailing four quarters |
| 2023-08-31 | 38.8 | Trailing four quarters |
| 2022-08-31 | 39.71 | Annual net income |
| 2021-08-31 | 40.45 | Annual net income |
Profitability Margins
Matching annual reporting dates. Values are percentages.
Scroll the table to see every column.
| Period end | Gross margin (%) | Operating margin (%) | Net margin (%) | Free cash flow margin (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-08-31 | 13.29 | 3.19 | 2.08 | 3.27 |
| 2018-08-31 | 13.01 | 3.16 | 2.21 | 1.98 |
| 2019-08-31 | 12.98 | 3.1 | 2.4 | 2.2 |
| 2020-08-31 | 13.09 | 3.26 | 2.4 | 3.63 |
| 2021-08-31 | 12.88 | 3.42 | 2.56 | 2.74 |
| 2022-08-31 | 12.15 | 3.43 | 2.57 | 1.54 |
| 2023-08-31 | 12.26 | 3.35 | 2.6 | 2.78 |
| 2024-08-31 | 12.61 | 3.65 | 2.9 | 2.61 |
| 2025-08-31 | 12.84 | 3.77 | 2.94 | 2.85 |
| 2026-08-31 | 12.82 | 3.85 | 3.04 | 3.1 |
Public data excerpt created by iPulse AI and published by Future Edge Group FZE. Source: eodhd. Snapshot retrieved 2026-09-29.
Use is subject to the iPulse AI Terms of Service and applicable source rights. Missing inputs are not estimated. Full access includes the remaining records, research and interactive tools.
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