Costco's Membership Fee Boost Is About to Run Out

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) reports its fiscal 2026 fourth-quarter results after the market closes on Thursday, Sept. 24. There's no suspense on the top line -- Costco discloses its sales every month, so investors have known since early September that fiscal fourth-quarter net sales were $93.9 billion, up 11.3% year over year.

What the monthly releases never show is what Costco kept. Gross margin, membership fee income, and earnings all stay hidden until the full report lands. And one of those lines has reached a turning point. The higher U.S. and Canada membership fees that took effect in September 2024 have nearly finished working through Costco's results, so Thursday's report could be the last one that gets much of a boost from them. That's a big deal for a line that made up about half of Costco's operating income in fiscal 2025.

And the stock still isn't cheap. At about $899 as of this writing (down from a 52-week high of $1,096.50), shares sell for about 45 times earnings. A price like that rests on the profit lines, not the sales line.

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