ISSAQUAH, Wash., March 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Costco Wholesale Corporation (“Costco” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: COST) today announced its operating results for the second quarter (twelve weeks) and the first 24 weeks of fiscal 2020, ended February 16, 2020.
Net sales for the quarter increased 10.5 percent, to $38.26 billion from $34.63 billion last year. Net sales for the first 24 weeks increased 8.1 percent, to $74.49 billion from $68.94 billion last year.Comparable sales for the second quarter fiscal 2020 were as follows:Due to Thanksgiving occurring a week later this year, for the quarter: total and comparable sales were positively impacted by approximately one-half percent; and e-commerce sales were positively impacted by an estimated 11 percentage points.
Reported net income for the quarter was $931 million, or $2.10 per diluted share, compared to $889 million, or $2.01 per diluted share, last year. Net income for the first 24 weeks was $1.77 billion, or $4.00 per diluted share, compared to $1.66 billion, or $3.74 per diluted share, last year.For the four-week reporting month of February, ended March 1, 2020, the Company reported net sales of $12.20 billion, an increase of 13.8 percent from $10.72 billion last year. For the twenty-six week period ended March 1, 2020, net sales were $80.76 billion, an increase of 8.5 percent from $74.42 billion last year.Comparable sales for the February and year-to-date periods ended March 1, 2020, were as follows:February sales benefited from an uptick in consumer demand in the fourth week of the reporting period. We attribute this to concerns over the Coronavirus and estimate the positive impact on total and comparable sales to be approximately three percent.
Costco currently operates 785 warehouses, including 546 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 100 in Canada, 39 in Mexico, 29 in the United Kingdom, 26 in Japan, 16 in Korea, 13 in Taiwan, 11 in Australia, two in Spain, and one each in Iceland, France, and China. Costco also operates e-commerce sites in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Australia.A conference call to discuss these results is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. (PT) today, March 5, 2020, and is available via a webcast on www.costco.com (click on Investor Relations and “Play Webcast”).Certain statements contained in this document and the pre-recorded telephone message constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. For these purposes, forward-looking statements are statements that address activities, events, conditions or developments that the Company expects or anticipates may occur in the future. In some cases forward-looking statements can be identified because they contain words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “likely,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “seek,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would,” or similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events, results or performance to differ materially from those indicated by such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, domestic and international economic conditions, including exchange rates, the effects of competition and regulation, uncertainties in the financial markets, consumer and small business spending patterns and debt levels, breaches of security or privacy of member or business information, conditions affecting the acquisition, development, ownership or use of real estate, capital spending, actions of vendors, rising costs associated with employees (generally including health care costs), energy and certain commodities, geopolitical conditions (including tariffs), the ability to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting, global disease threats, and other risks identified from time to time in the Company’s public statements and reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and the Company does not undertake to update these statements, except as required by law.
COSTCO WHOLESALE CORPORATION
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME
(dollars in millions, except per share data) (unaudited)
COSTCO WHOLESALE CORPORATION
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(amounts in millions, except par value and share data) (unaudited)
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