Costco Wholesale (COST) reported that its net sales rose an annualized 7.1% to $19.80 billion U.S. in August as consumers continue to flock to the warehouse club for groceries and other essential items.
The August sales result follows a 7% year-over-year increase recorded by the company in July of this year.
Costco is one of the few publicly traded companies that continues to report its financial results on a monthly as well as quarterly basis.
Despite the strong overall results for August, Costco’s same-store sales dipped slightly due to lower gas prices.
A decline in gas prices averaging 11% negatively impacted Costco’s same-store sales by 1.5%, said the company.
As a result, Costco reported that its same-store sales rose 5% during August from a year earlier. That was down slightly from July’s 5.2% advance.
Removing the impact of gasoline prices, Costco’s same-store sales rose 7.1% last month.
The company also released preliminary data for its fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 1 alongside its monthly numbers.
Costco said that its latest quarterly sales totaled $78.20 billion U.S. and that its same-store sales increased 5.4% during the three-month period.
The company is scheduled to report final quarterly financial results on Sept. 26.
The stock of Costco has risen 62% over the last 12 months and currently trades at $885.98 U.S. per share.
