$Costco Wholesale(COST.US) Quick Interpretation: Overall, the financial report of the membership discount retail giant Costco shows strong growth, but profits fell slightly short of expectations.

Total merchandise sales for the season increased by 9.1% year-on-year, significantly better than the consensus expectation of 7.8% from sellers. However, since the company previously announced that same-store sales in December and January were both above 9%, we speculate that buyers' actual expectations should be similar to the actual performance.

Regionally, the growth was primarily strong in the United States, with same-store comparable sales increasing by 8.3%, while non-North American regions saw weak growth of only 1.7%. It is also worth noting that the average transaction value in the U.S. increased by 2.6% year-on-year (the highest point since the 2023 fiscal year), while Canada and other countries experienced a year-on-year decline. This indicates that inflationary pressure on consumer goods in the U.S. is indeed significant.

However, on the profit side, net profit only grew by 2.6% year-on-year to $1.79 billion, which is below the consensus expectation of $1.84 billion from sellers. It seems there is an issue of increasing revenue without increasing profit. But according to the company's explanation, this is mainly due to a one-time tax benefit of about $94 million in the same period last year. Excluding this impact, net profit increased by 8.4% year-on-year, at least comparable to the revenue growth rate. Therefore, Costco's performance for the season is still quite robust.