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Costco profit tops forecast
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October 7, 1999: 8:18 a.m. ET
Nation's largest wholesale club operator rings up 22% 4Q gain
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Costco Wholesale Corp., the nation's largest wholesale club operator, beat fiscal fourth-quarter earnings expectations Thursday.
Issaquah, Wash.-based Costco posted a 22 percent increase in fourth-quarter earnings to $183.2 million and a 20 percent increase in per share earnings of 79 cents per share.
The results exclude a $30 million after-tax charge, equal to 13 cents per share.
Analysts polled by First Call Corp. had expected the company to post a profit of 76 cents per share.
Including the charge, related to the company's plan to increase the number of warehouse relocations to larger and better located facilities, Costco reported net income of $153.2 million, or 66 cents per diluted share.
Fourth-quarter net sales increase 14 percent to $8.66 billion.
Net income for all of fiscal 1999 was affected by both the $50 million fourth-quarter charge and a $118 million non-cash, after-tax charge recorded in the first quarter, reflecting the cumulative effect of the company's change in accounting fees from a cash to a deferred method.
Including the charges, earnings for fiscal 1999 were $397.3 million, or $1.73 per diluted share, compared with $459.8 million, or $2.03 per diluted share, a year earlier. Excluding the charges, fiscal 1999 earnings were $545.3 million, or $2.36 per diluted share.
The company also reported net sales of $2.70 billion for the five weeks ended Oct. 3, a 16 percent increase from the same period last year.
Shares of Costco (COST) fell 9/16 Wednesday to close at 78-3/4. 
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Costco
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