What's Going On With Costco Shares Friday?

Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) shares are trading lower Friday. The company reported first quarter financial results on Thursday after the market closed.

Costco Wholesale stock is under selling pressure. Why are COST shares declining?

What To Know: Costco reported earnings per share of $4.50, beating the consensus estimate of $4.27. In addition, the company reported revenue of $67.30 billion, beating the consensus estimate of $67.13 billion.

Net sales climbed 8.2% year-over-year. Comparable sales rose 6.4% year-over-year, with growth of 5.9% in the U.S., 6.5% in Canada and 8.8% across other international markets.

Costco said net income increased to $2.00 billion in the first quarter, up from $1.80 billion in the prior-year period, reflecting higher profitability year-over-year.

Results included a $72 million tax benefit related to stock-based compensation, which was smaller than the $100 million benefit recorded in the year-ago quarter.

Following the earnings report, Bernstein analyst Zhihan Ma maintained an Outperform rating on Costco and raised the price target from $1134 to $1146.

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COST Price Action: At the time of writing, Costco shares are trading 1.30% lower at $872.97, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

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