“The theme of the quarter is that the company once again strategically sacrificed some margin to increase membership revenue 10%,” the analyst wrote in a note. “Costco continues on its long-term strategic path of capturing incremental consumer traffic and then leveraging that to drive market share gains across all categories in the retail landscape.”
Retail HOLDRS (AMEX: RTH) and Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEArca: XLP), which both hold Costco, were fractionally lower Wednesday.
Retail HOLDRS
