Costco Wholesale April Comps. Up

(RTTNews) - Membership warehouses operator Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) said Thursday its comparable sales for the month of April grew 5 percent, with growth of 5 percent in the U.S. and 2 percent overseas. For April, net sales rose 7 percent to $8.56 billion from $7.98 billion.

The company said inflation in gasoline prices had a positive impact on comparable sales for the four-week period, while calendar shift negatively impacted this year's net and comparable sales by an estimated one and one-half to two percent.

Excluding these effects, comparable sales growth during the month remained at 5 percent.