There is little indication that sales or profits will accelerate considerably over the next few years at Costco.

Retail stocks rise on Monday, tracking the broader markets, as Abu Dhabi came to a $10 billion rescue of ailing Dubai, staving off the potential for a bond default that could have sent a negative impact rippling throughout the world.

Weighing a company against its rivals can tell you a lot.

BloggingStocks: Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks: Advance Auto Parts Inc. (AAP) was downgraded due to concerns about its 2010 earnings outlook. Analogic Corp. (ALOG) received an analyst's downgrade after it ... Read more

So ... is it in your portfolio?

Is it just me or did this week fly by? (Not that I'm complaining.)Asian stocks rebounded overnight. The Hang Seng and the Nikkei were up 0.93% and 2.48% respectively. European stocks were in positive territory early this morning too. And here in the US we're currently trading higher. Here’s what I’m seeing this beautiful Friday morning:Ciena (CIEN): See ya Ciena...Check out the company’s fourth-quarter numbers. Excluding items it put up a loss of $0.12 and that wasn’t too impressive given the Street was at a loss of $0.07. The bulls will argue however that it beat on the top ...

Membership warehouse operator Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) saw its earnings estimates raised on Friday by analysts at Goldman Sachs. The analyst said it has raised its estimates for COST through 2013, citing higher realized margins and a continuing sales recovery. Goldman currently rates the stock as “Neutral” with a $61 price target. Costco shares, which closed at [...]

The analyst team at Bernstein Research, led by Colin Mcgranahan has assigned a neutral rating to Costco (NASDAQ: COST)(FREE stock trend analysis). With the first quarter performance in line with estimates and the margins going forward not promising any smart increase, the stock is fairly valued in their opinion.

While the core merchandise margins for Costco have shown an improvement, the continuous increase in the SGA expenditure is preventing this increase from distilling into the bottomline. With the stock quoting at 20.9 times and 18.5 times 2009 and 2010 earnings respectively, any medium term upside in the price is capped for now, in their view.

A majority of retail chains like Macy’s (NYSE: M)(FREE stock trend analysis), Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT)(FREE stock trend analysis), Cotsco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST)(FREE stock trend analysis), Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN)(FREE stock trend analysis) and few others are likely to evince traders’ interest on Friday, as retail sales for November moved up by a higher than expected 1.3%, for the third month over the trailing four months.

The retail sales growth, which was well above the analysts’ anticipations of 0.5% growth, was 1.2% after excluding the gasoline, hardware and auto stores, the highest for 2009 so far.

Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) reported nearly flat earnings for the quarter that ended Nov. 22. The company earned $266m, or 60 cents per share, compared with $263m, or 60 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 6% to $17.3b as more shoppers joined its clubs and net sales grew 5.5% to $16.92b.

Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) operates membership warehouses that offer its members low prices on a limited selection of branded and selected private-label products in a range of merchandise categories.

Below are the top 5 large-cap stocks on the NASDAQ in terms of sales (ttm).

The trailing-twelve-month sales figure for Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST)(FREE stock trend analysis) is $71.42 billion. COST’s market capitalization is $25.62 billion. Robert W Baird upgraded COST from “neutral” to “outperform.”

The trailing-twelve-month sales figure for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT)(FREE stock trend analysis) is $56.3 billion. ABC’s market capitalization is $265.22 billion. UBS initiated coverage of MSFT with a “buy” rating.

The trailing-twelve-month sales figure for Dell Inc (NASDAQ: DELL)(FREE stock trend analysis) is $51.43 billion. DELL’s market capitalization is $25.89 billion. AmTech Research upgraded DELL from “neutral” to “buy.”

The trailing-twelve-month sales figure for Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL)(FREE stock trend analysis) is $36.54 billion. AAPL’s market capitalization is $176.92 billion. UBS upgraded AAPL from “neutral” to “buy.”

The trailing-twelve-month sales figure for Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA)(FREE stock trend analysis) is $35.34 billion. CMCSA’s market capitalization is $50.19 billion. CMCSA’s quarterly earnings growth was 22.40% y/y.

Naked Hedge Fund submits:

The big economic number of the week is the Retail Sales numbers coming out Friday from the U.S. Census Bureau. For those that are interested in looking at more details on the numbers you can go to the Census Bureau . The upcoming numbers are for the month of November. The market is expecting an increase of 0.6% month over month (from Oct to Nov). The prior month saw an increase of 1.4% (from Sep to Oct)

Below is a big picture chart showing all the data from the Census Bureau, which goes back to Jan. 1992. You can see the significance of the financial crisis with the large drop that started in 2008. The recession of the early 2000s doesn't even show a blip compared to the current recession.

Complete Story »

BloggingStocks: Costco (COST), a warehouse club that competes with BJ's (BJ) and Wal-Mart (WMT), reported Q1 numbers on Thursday. Earnings, which came in at 60 cents per share, were flat compared to last year's results. Not only that, but expectations were precisely ... Read more

Right now, you should be particularly wary of these companies.

See the rest of the story here.

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Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST)

F1Q10 Earnings Call

December 10, 2009 11:00 am ET

Complete Story »

Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST)

F1Q10 Earnings Call

December 10, 2009 11:00 am ET

Complete Story »

US stocks finished up on Thursday as a government release showed that trade gap narrowed unexpectedly by 7.6% to $32.9 billion in the month of October.[More...]

Question-and-Answer Session Operator Operator Instructions Your first question comes from Charles Grom with J.P. Morgan. Charles Grom - J.P. Morgan Just on the gross profit, the core was up 11 basis points, I think you said, and in the fourth quarter it was up 6 -- just wondering if...