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Costco (COST) Q4 2026 Earnings: Sales Rise 11.2%

Steven Levine, Founder of TickerPosts and OpenClassActions.com1 min read
A stack of yellow shopping carts outside a building, showcasing industrial design.
Illustrative photo by Justin Vallée on Pexels

Costco ended fiscal 2026 with double-digit quarterly sales growth, higher profit and continued strength in digitally enabled shopping. One-time tariff refunds also helped earnings, making it important to separate the underlying business from the special benefit.

Costco Q4 2026 results

Costco reported fourth-quarter net sales of $93.9 billion, an 11.2% increase from $84.4 billion a year earlier. Full-year sales increased 10.1% to $297.2 billion.

Quarterly net income reached $2.998 billion, or $6.75 per diluted share, compared with $2.610 billion, or $5.87 per share, in the prior-year period. Full-year net income was $9.226 billion and diluted EPS was $20.76.

Comparable sales show the operating trend

Reported total-company comparable sales increased 9.4% in the quarter. Excluding changes in gasoline prices and foreign exchange, comparable sales rose 6.7%.

The adjusted figure is useful because fuel prices and currencies can move reported sales without reflecting changes in shopping activity. Both measures are legitimate, but they answer different questions.

Digitally enabled comparable sales increased 19.8% after the same adjustments. That was substantially faster than companywide comparable growth and indicates that Costco's digital channel continues to gain scale from a smaller base.

The $0.15 EPS benefit was nonrecurring

Costco's earnings release says quarterly EPS included a $0.15 benefit from IEEPA tariff refunds, net of partial reinvestment in increased member value.

Subtracting that amount mechanically would produce $6.60 per share, but that is not a company-reported adjusted EPS measure. The useful conclusion is narrower: part of the year-over-year EPS increase came from a benefit management described as nonrecurring.

What COST investors should watch

Costco operated 939 warehouses at fiscal year-end. Future returns depend on comparable traffic and spending, membership renewal and fee economics, new-warehouse productivity, wages and merchandise costs.

The quarter showed healthy operating momentum across physical and digital channels. Investors should evaluate that strength separately from the one-time refund and from the valuation they are asked to pay for Costco's consistency.

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Analysis published September 24, 2026. This article is informational and is not investment advice. Forward-looking plans and announced transactions can change.

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