Costco Reports Q2 Results, Year-to-Date Fiscal 2020

Costco Wholesale Corp. of Issaquah, Wash., has reported its operating results for its second quarter and the first 24 weeks of fiscal 2020, ending Feb. 16, 2020. Net sales for the quarter increased 10.5% to $38.26 billion, up from $34.63 billion last year. Net sales for the first 24 weeks increased 8.1% to $74.49 billion, up from $68.94 billion last year.

Total and comparable sales were positively impacted by about 0.5%, and e-commerce sales were positively impacted by an estimated 11 percentage points for the quarter, due to Thanksgiving occurring a week later this year, said Costco in a release.

Reported net income for the quarter was $931 million, compared to $889 million last year. Net income for the first 24 weeks was $1.77 billion, compared to $1.66 billion last year.

It seems Costco shoppers stocked up on supplies earlier in the pandemic, as the company saw an uptick in consumer demand in the fourth week of the reporting period. The company reported net sales of $12.20 billion, an increase of 13.8% from $10.72 billion last year for the four-week reporting month of February, ending March 1. For the 26-week period ended March 1, net sales were $80.76 billion, an increase of 8.5% from $74.42 billion last year.

The retailer 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 U.K., Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Australia.