(AOF) – Costco Wholesale, the warehouse-based retail group, reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street estimates, as annual sales topped $200 billion. dollars for the first time. Costco reported fourth-quarter earnings of $4.20 a share on revenue of $72.09 billion. Annual sales reached $222.73 billion, an increase of 16% over the previous year.
However, the company’s gross margins for the current quarter were reduced as Costco faced higher freight and labor costs due to higher inflation and chain issues. global supply.
Separately, Costco’s total inventory at the end of the fourth quarter was up 26% from a year earlier, with the company promoting such major U.S. retailers Walmart Inc and Target. The company reported a drop in quarterly profit as consumers squeezed by rising prices cut spending on non-essential items.
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big concerns
According to the Federation of specialized trade, Procos, activity from January to May is very significantly down compared to the same period in 2019, at – 8.8%. Store traffic in May 2022 remained lower than in May 2019, but the decline was limited to 6.5%, much better than in April (-19.6% compared to April 2019). In a very uncertain context, several elements weigh on the profitability of companies, in particular the increase in the cost of electricity and the indexation of rents, even if the composition of the ILC (commercial rent index) has been modified. Previously it was composed of 50% inflation, 25% construction cost index and 25% change in retail turnover. From now on, it will only take into account inflation and the cost of construction because the previous formula included sales made by the ‘pure players’ of the Net, which increased the rents of physical stores.