Costco Q4 2026 earnings: sales climb 11%, tariff refund adds one-time boost to profit

September 24, 2026

Costco's fiscal Q4 sales and profit grew strongly, helped by resilient shopping and a one-time tariff-refund boost, while high membership fee income kept underlying profitability solid.

Key takeaways

• Sales and profit both grew at a double-digit clip from a year earlier, extending a long stretch of steady growth. Comparable sales (sales at stores and online open at least a year) rose 9.4% company-wide, or 6.7% once swings in gas prices and currency are stripped out, with U.S. locations leading at 10.7% - a sign that shoppers kept spending at Costco even amid broader economic uncertainty.
• Profit for the quarter got an unusual, one-time lift of about $0.15 per share from refunds tied to import tariffs Costco had already paid; courts had found those tariffs improper. Costco said it is passing part of that refund back to members through lower prices rather than keeping it all as profit, so the boost doesn’t reflect an ongoing improvement in the business.
• For the full fiscal year, membership fee income - the flat annual dues members pay to shop at Costco - rose about 11% to $5.9 billion. That fee income is Costco’s most profitable revenue stream and is the main reason the company can post very thin margins on the merchandise it sells (gross margin under 13% over the trailing year) while still running a profitable, fast-growing business.
• Profit grew faster than sales over the past year (per-share earnings up nearly 13% versus revenue growth of about 9%), and the company’s return on shareholders’ equity topped 28% - both signs that Costco is squeezing more profit out of each dollar of sales and capital even as its retail margins stay razor-thin.
• Executives said Costco is managing higher import costs by shifting where it sources goods, buying in bulk across more countries to get better prices, and leaning on its private-label Kirkland Signature brand, which gives it more control over its own supply chain and pricing.
• Membership renewal rates stayed high - above 92% in the U.S. and Canada - and online sales kept growing faster than in-store sales, suggesting members remain loyal to the club model and are increasingly comfortable buying everyday items, not just big-ticket ones, through Costco’s website and app.

Q4 2026 in context

Figures for the quarter ended Aug 2026 and the quarter ended Aug 2025, as reported to the SEC. Fourth-quarter flows are derived as the fiscal year minus its first three quarters.

How the stock took it

Costco Wholesale Corp closed at $904.70 on Sep 23, 2026, the last session before the report, and at $922.77 on Sep 25, 2026, the first session after it — +2.0% across the report.

Closes from the market's daily record. Each figure spans the report date — from the last session that closed before it to the first that closed after — because a company may report before the open or after the close.

Fundamentals

Financial history →

Sources: company report · CFO Dive · Digital Commerce 360