Overseas Growth Carries Costco to 1Q Earnings Beat

Powered by robust overseas growth, Costco (NASDAQ:COST) weighed in on Wednesday with a 30% leap in fiscal first-quarter profits that surpassed Wall Street’s expectations.

Shares of the wholesale retailer ticked up about 1% in the wake of the earnings beat.

Costco said it earned $416 million, or 95 cents a share, last quarter, compared with a profit of $320 million, or 73 cents a share, a year ago. Analysts had been anticipating EPS of 93 cents.

Revenue climbed 9.6% to $23.72 billion, narrowly topping the Street’s view of $23.67 billion.

Domestic same-store sales grew by 7% overall and by 6% excluding fuel prices.

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Overseas growth was even stronger as international same-store sales soared 9%.

Costco said its operating margins grew to 2.7% from 2.5%.

Shares of Costco gained 1.11% to $99.40 in premarket trading on Wednesday, putting them on pace to build on their 2012 rally of 18%.

The stronger-than-expected results come after Costco’s board green lighted a plan to pay a special one-time dividend of $7 a share, a move that will cost the company $3 billion and is timed to beat the year-end fiscal cliff.