Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) reported a strong fiscal Q1 for 2026, with total sales increasing by 8.2% year-over-year to approximately $66 billion. Comparable sales rose 6.4%, driven by both increased customer traffic and higher average transaction sizes. Notably, digital comparable sales surged 20.5%. The company’s international markets, outside the mature U.S. and Canada, also showed robust growth, with comparable sales up 6.8%.
Membership fee income grew 14% year-over-year to about $1.33 billion, benefitting from a price hike last September and an increase in member count, with total paid memberships reaching 81.4 million, up 5.2%. However, concerns regarding Costco’s valuation persist, as its price-to-earnings ratio stands at 47, which is higher than industry peers and raises questions about potential risks associated with an overvalued stock.
