This article first appeared on GuruFocus .
Costco Wholesale ( NASDAQ:COST ), the membership-warehouse powerhouse, posted $23.70 billion in August sales as its shares fell roughly 1% to $915.93 Friday. Revenue surged 9.9% despite calendar timing cutting nearly 75 basis points from reported growth. Costco delivered a big month. The stock still went backward.
Comparable sales jumped 8.4%, while growth reached 5.4% after removing gasoline-price and currency swings. The real rocket was digital: digitally enabled sales soared 17.9%, more than three times the adjusted companywide pace. Fiscal-year net sales climbed 10.2% to $297.3 billion. Costco's growth machine remains firmly switched on.
The tension is valuation. Faster online growth creates another revenue runway, but fulfillment costs could squeeze Costco's famously efficient warehouse economics. The shares also remain priced for near-perfection at roughly 46 times earnings. Yet the chart shows the stock trading 11.79% below its GF Value estimate of about $1,040a meaningful discount for a business still producing double-digit annual sales growth.
