Membership warehouse operator Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) Thursday reported a 12 percent increase in April 2011 comparable sales, reflecting the positive effects of gasoline price inflation and strengthening foreign currencies. The company's net sales grew 17 percent for the month.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting comparable sales growth of 8.9 percent, including the fuel price effect.
Excluding the gasoline price inflation and foreign currency effects, Costco's comparable sales rose 7 percent in April.
Issaquah, Washington-based Costco said that this year's April included 27 days of sales compared with 28 in the prior year due to Easter-related holidays. Last year, Easter fell in the month of March. Even though this calendar shift had a negative impact of about 1.5 to 2 percent on April sales, it was offset in part by several days of pre-Easter sales.
This year's April also included sales from the Mexico joint venture, which is being consolidated on a prospective basis since August 30, 2010, the beginning of the fiscal year 2011, the company noted.
The company's U.S. comparable sales grew 11 percent in April 2011, while International operations posted an increase of 16 percent. Excluding the impacts of inflation in gasoline prices and strengthening foreign currencies, U.S. and International comparable sales rose 6 percent and 10 percent, respectively.
Costco's April net sales totaled $6.80 billion, an increase of 17 percent from $5.83 billion in April 2010. Excluding the sales from the Mexico joint venture, net sales would have grown 14 percent.
Costco currently operates 580 warehouses, including 425 in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, 80 in Canada, 22 in the UK, seven in Korea, six in Taiwan, seven in Japan, one in Australia and 32 in Mexico.
The company plans to open up to thirteen additional warehouses prior to the end of this fiscal year.
COST closed Wednesday's trading at $80.14, down $0.31, on a volume of 2.19 million shares.
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