Costco just delivered the kind of quarter most retailers would envy — and Wall Street shrugged anyway.
The membership-based warehouse giant reported fiscal second-quarter results Thursday that cleared analyst expectations on every major metric, yet shares dipped roughly 0.3% after the announcement. For longtime Costco investors, the reaction was less a surprise than a familiar ritual.
Costco’s Q2 Numbers Hit the Mark
The retailer posted adjusted earnings per share of $4.58, edging past the consensus estimate of $4.55. Revenue came in at $69.6 billion, topping the $69.25 billion forecast, a 9.1% jump from the same period last year. Net income rose to $2.04 billion from $1.79 billion in the prior-year quarter.
Comparable sales climbed 7.4% overall — or 6.7% after stripping out gasoline prices and foreign exchange fluctuations. U.S. comparable sales grew 5.9%, while Canada surged 10.1% and Other International markets expanded 13%, outpacing domestic performance by a wide margin.
The most striking figure in the report, however, was digital. E-commerce sales jumped 22.6% during the quarter — a remarkable leap for a brand whose identity is rooted firmly in the physical warehouse experience. For a business that built its empire on bulk buying and parking lots, that kind of online momentum signals something larger is underway.
February sales added to the momentum, reaching $21.69 billion — up 9.5% year over year. Comparable sales for the month rose 7.9%, boosted in part by favorable timing shifts tied to Lunar New Year and Chinese New Year holidays in international markets. Costco now operates 924 warehouses globally, including 634 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 114 in Canada, and 176 across other international markets, with e-commerce operations spanning eight countries.
A Rare Costco Technical Signal Appeared
Before a single earnings figure was released, something unusual had already caught the eye of chart watchers. A golden cross — a technical pattern that occurs when a stock’s 50-day moving average crosses above its 200-day moving average — appeared in Costco’s chart on the same day as the earnings report. It was the first time this signal had shown up in the stock in nearly three years.
The last time this pattern emerged was May 31, 2023. What followed was a 92.8% rally before a reversal signal appeared in August 2025. Over the past decade, Costco has produced seven golden crosses. The stock rose in four of those periods, gaining an average of 32.1%. In the one instance it declined, shares fell 10.2%.
Adding to the momentum, shares surged 17.2% across January and February combined — the biggest two-month gain for that stretch since the first two months of 1991. For comparison, rival BJ’s Wholesale Club posted comparable sales growth of just 1.6% in its most recent quarter, well below its eight-quarter average of 2.4%.
Why Even a Strong Beat Wasn’t Enough
Costco has a well-documented post-earnings habit that works against even its best reports. Shares have declined the day after six of the past eight earnings releases, falling an average of 3.2% on those occasions. The two times the stock did rise after a report, the average gain was a modest 1.6%.
That pattern looms large in how investors process results. When a company tops estimates and the stock still slips, the real question isn’t about performance — it’s about whether the beat was substantial enough to justify a valuation that had already run up sharply heading into the print.
Costco’s Dual Appeal Keeps Growth Steady
Part of what makes Costco’s continued growth so notable is the breadth of its customer base. The retailer attracts both budget-conscious shoppers drawn to its competitive pricing and higher-income consumers who simply value the proposition it offers. That combination has allowed Costco to sustain strong comparable sales growth even as many competitors have struggled to retain customers at either end of the income spectrum.
The international outperformance, the digital sales breakout, and the golden cross all point in the same direction. Whether Thursday’s post-earnings dip turns out to be a brief pause in a longer rally — or something else — is the question Costco investors will be watching closely in the weeks ahead.
