Costco Stock Falls After-Hours On Q2 Earnings Miss: Retail Turns More Bearish On Trump Tariff Fallout Worries

Second-quarter earnings per share came in at $4.02, missing estimates of $4.09.

Shares of Costco Wholesale Corp (COST) fell 1.20% in after-hours trading following worse-than-expected retailer’s fiscal second-quarter earnings, despite an increase in same store sales, dragging down retail sentiment.

Comparable sales increased 6.8% year-over-year, better than 6.4% that Wall Street expected. The U.S. comparable sales portion grew by 8.3%, the company said.

Earnings per share came in at $4.02, missing estimates of $4.09. Revenue came in at $62.53 billion, rising 9.1% year-over-year, but below the $63.11 billion estimate quoted by Wall Street.

Costco, like other big box retailers, warned about the potential impact of U.S. tariffs. A 25% levy on Mexico and Canada imports was implemented earlier this week and another 10% levy is set to be imposed on China imports.

However, the U.S. on Thursday indicated it would pause tariffs for Mexico and Canada imports in accordance with the U.S. Mexico-Canada Agreement until April 2.

Costco CEO Ron Vachris said it “difficult to predict” the full impact of tariffs, according to a Barron’s report, which added that about a third of the retailer’s sales are from imports and less than half of those are items coming from China, Mexico, and Canada.

“Our team remains agile and our goal will be to minimize the impact of related cost increases to our members,” Vachris was reported as saying.

Sentiment on Stocktwits worsened to ‘extremely bearish’ from ‘bearish.’ While message volume climbed to ‘extremely high’ from ‘normal.’

One bearish commenter’s take on Costco performance warned of a recession and impact of public spending cuts.

But a ‘bullish’ trader just blamed bad timing, given Trump’s announcement on tariffs.

Costco reaffirmed its FY25 capital expenditures outlook of $5 billion, The Fly reported. The retailer has plans for 28 new openings in fiscal 2025, and warned that headwinds from foreign exchange may continue. Costco operates 897 warehouses, including 617 in the U.S., 109 in Canada, 29 in the U.K., 15 in Australia, among others.

Costco stock is up 12% year-to-date.

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