Costco Wholesale’s (COST) November sales rose 8% from a year earlier as foot traffic at its stores picked up heading into the year-end holidays.
Costco, which reports its sales figures on a monthly basis, released both its November and fiscal first-quarter sales data. Both rose at a strong rate, helped by growth in e-commerce.
The Seattle-based company’s fiscal first-quarter sales totaled $65.98 billion U.S., an increase of 8.2% from a year ago.
Same-store sales for the quarter ended Nov. 23 increased 6.4% from a year ago, ahead of Wall Street’s forecast of 5.8% growth.
E-commerce sales jumped 20.5% in the quarter. However, given the quarter’s cutoff date, sales over the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday weekend are not reflected in the latest data.
Still, net sales in November totaled $23.6 billion U.S., up 8.1% year-over-year. That follows a sales increase of 8.6% in October.
Costco said top-performing sales categories include candy, food, meats, bakery, jewelry, and beauty products.
Costco said foot traffic at its warehouse clubs increased 3.8% worldwide in November, while the average transaction fee rose 3%.
The latest financial information from Costco doesn’t include any revenue stemming from the company’s membership fees, which will be disclosed along with earnings when the company’s full third-quarter financial results are released on Dec. 11.
COST stock has risen 1% this year to trade at $922.26 U.S. per share.
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