Costco Wholesale will report results after the close Thursday, and it's a chance for the discounter to show that it's held up better than peers amid a difficult earnings season for retail.
Analysts anticipate that Costco will earn $3.04 a share on revenue of $51.56 billion. That would be an increase from the year-ago period, when Costco earned $2.75 a share on revenue of $45.3 billion.
Indeed, Costco has been notching record results throughout the pandemic, as shoppers flocked to its value offerings and memberships climbed.
However the stock's winning streak has come under pressure of late, with Costco falling about 23% in the past month alone. That's largely in part because of recent results from companies like Walmart $(WMT)$ which noted that some consumers at the lower end of the spectrum are feeling pinched by inflation.
That said, Costco tends to have core shoppers higher up the income scale than Walmart, and benefits from more value-conscious consumers. In addition, it's worth noting that Walmart's warehouse division, Sam's Club, saw strong same-store sales in its quarter.
However, Sam's Club did see its margins come under pressure due to rapidly rising fuel prices (given that it and other discounters are using gas as a loss leader to bring in customers), which could also impact Costco results.
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