Costco Wholesale June Comps. Decline 1%, But Sales Up 1%

(RTTNews) - Membership warehouses operator Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) reported Wednesday that net sales for the month of June increased 1 percent from a year ago. However, comparable store sales for the month declined 1 percent, while it grew 6 percent after excluding the negative impacts from gasoline price deflation and foreign exchange.

The Issaquah, Washington-based company reported net sales of $11.01 billion for the five weeks ended July 5, 2015, up 1 percent from $10.88 billion in the same month last year.

Total company comparable sales for the month of June declined 1 percent, with an 8 percent decrease in international comparable sales and a 3 percent increase in the U.S.

Excluding the negative impacts from gasoline price deflation and foreign exchange, total company comparable sales for the month rose 6 percent, with 6 percent growth both in the U.S. and International business.

The company also reported net sales of $96.32 billion for the forty-four weeks ended July 5, 2015, up 4 percent from $92.88 billion in the same period last year.

Total company comparable sales for the period was up 2 percent, with 3 percent growth in the U.S., while International comparable sales declined 3 percent.

Excluding the negative impacts from gasoline price deflation and foreign exchange, total company comparable sales for the period grew 7 percent, with 7 percent growth both in the U.S. and outside the U.S.

Costco currently operates 679 warehouses, including 479 in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, 89 in Canada, 36 in Mexico, 26 in the U.K., 20 in Japan, 11 in Korea, 10 in Taiwan, seven in Australia and one in Spain.

The company said it plans to open up to an additional 8 new warehouses prior to the end of its fiscal year on August 30, 2015.

COST closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $139.90, down $0.60 or 0.43 percent on a volume of 2.92 million shares. In after-hours, the stock further declined $0.28 or 0.20 percent to $139.62.