Costco Wholesale (COST) Debt-to-Equity

: 0.45 (As of Feb. 2024)

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Costco Wholesale's Short-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation for the quarter that ended in Feb. 2024 was $1,080 Mil. Costco Wholesale's Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation for the quarter that ended in Feb. 2024 was $8,353 Mil. Costco Wholesale's Total Stockholders Equity for the quarter that ended in Feb. 2024 was $20,760 Mil. Costco Wholesale's debt to equity for the quarter that ended in Feb. 2024 was 0.45.

A high debt to equity ratio generally means that a company has been aggressive in financing its growth with debt. This can result in volatile earnings as a result of the additional interest expense.

The historical rank and industry rank for Costco Wholesale's Debt-to-Equity or its related term are showing as below:

COST' s Debt-to-Equity Range Over the Past 10 Years
Min: 0.36 Med: 0.47 Max: 0.69
Current: 0.45

During the past 13 years, the highest Debt-to-Equity Ratio of Costco Wholesale was 0.69. The lowest was 0.36. And the median was 0.47.

COST's Debt-to-Equity is ranked better than
58.7% of 276 companies
in the Retail - Defensive industry
Industry Median: 0.65 vs COST: 0.45

Costco Wholesale Debt-to-Equity Historical Data

The historical data trend for Costco Wholesale's Debt-to-Equity can be seen below:

* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD.
* For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.

* Premium members only.

Costco Wholesale Annual Data

Trend

Aug14

Aug15

Aug16

Aug17

Aug18

Aug19

Aug20

Aug21

Aug22

Aug23

Debt-to-Equity

0.45

0.56

0.58

0.44

0.36

Costco Wholesale Quarterly Data
	May19	Aug19	Nov19	Feb20	May20	Aug20	Nov20	Feb21	May21	Aug21	Nov21	Feb22	May22	Aug22	Nov22	Feb23	May23	Aug23	Nov23	Feb24
Debt-to-Equity																0.40	0.38	0.36	0.36	0.45

Competitive Comparison

For the Discount Stores subindustry, Costco Wholesale's Debt-to-Equity, along with its competitors' market caps and Debt-to-Equity data, can be viewed below:

* Competitive companies are chosen from companies within the same industry, with headquarter located in same country, with closest market capitalization; x-axis shows the market cap, and y-axis shows the term value; the bigger the dot, the larger the market cap. Note that "N/A" values will not show up in the chart.

Costco Wholesale Debt-to-Equity Distribution

For the Retail - Defensive industry and Consumer Defensive sector, Costco Wholesale's Debt-to-Equity distribution charts can be found below:

* The bar in red indicates where Costco Wholesale's Debt-to-Equity falls into.

Costco Wholesale Debt-to-Equity Calculation

Debt to Equity measures the financial leverage a company has.

Costco Wholesale's Debt to Equity Ratio for the fiscal year that ended in Aug. 2023 is calculated as

Debt to Equity	=	Total Debt			/	Total Stockholders Equity
	=	(Short-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation	+	Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation)	/	Total Stockholders Equity
	=	(1081	+	7803)	/	25058
	=	0.35

Costco Wholesale's Debt to Equity Ratio for the quarter that ended in Feb. 2024 is calculated as

Debt to Equity	=	Total Debt			/	Total Stockholders Equity
	=	(Short-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation	+	Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation)	/	Total Stockholders Equity
	=	(1080	+	8353)	/	20760
	=	0.45

Costco Wholesale (NAS:COST) Debt-to-Equity Explanation

In the calculation of Debt to Equity, we use the total of Short-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation and Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation divided by Total Stockholders Equity. In some calculations, Total Liabilities is used to for calculation.

Be Aware

Because a company can increase its ROE % by having more financial leverage, it is important to watch the leverage ratio when investing in high ROE % companies.

Costco Wholesale Debt-to-Equity Related Terms

Thank you for viewing the detailed overview of Costco Wholesale's Debt-to-Equity provided by GuruFocus.com. Please click on the following links to see related term pages.

Costco Wholesale (COST) Business Description

Industry

GURUFOCUS.COM » STOCK LIST » Consumer Defensive » Retail - Defensive » Costco Wholesale Corp (NAS:COST) » Definitions » Debt-to-Equity

Comparable Companies

Traded in Other Exchanges

COST:Mexico CTO0:Germany CTO:Germany CTO:Germany CTO:Germany CTO:Germany COST:Chile COST:Canada COWC34:Brazil COST:Argentina

Address

999 Lake Drive, Issaquah, WA, USA, 98027

Website

https://www.costco.com

Costco operates a membership-based, no-frills retail model, predicated on offering a select product assortment in bulk quantities at bargain prices. The firm avoids maintaining costly product displays by keeping inventory on pallets and limits distribution expenses by storing its inventory at point of sale in the warehouse. Given Costco's frugal cost structure, the firm is able to price its merchandise below competing retailers, driving high sales volume per warehouse and allowing the retailer to generate strong profits on thin margins. Costco operates nearly 600 warehouses in the United States and boasts over 60% market share in the domestic warehouse club industry. Internationally, Costco operates another 270 warehouses, primarily in markets such as Canada, Mexico, Japan, and the U.K.

Executives

W Craig Jelinek	officer: Executive VP	999 LAKE DRIVE, ISSAQUAH WA 98027
Yoram Rubananko	officer: Executive VP	999 LAKE DRIVE, ISSAQUAH WA 98027
Caton Frates	officer: Executive Vice President	999 LAKE DRIVE, ISSAQUAH WA 98027
Daniel M. Hines	other: Principal Acctg Officer	999 LAKE DRIVE, ISSAQUAH WA 98027
Richard A Galanti	director, officer: Executive VP and CFO	999 LAKE DRIVE, ISSAQUAH WA 98027
Pierre Riel	officer: EVP	999 LAKE DRIVE, ISSAQUAH WA 98027
Russell D Miller	officer: Executive Vice President	999 LAKE DRIVE, ISSAQUAH WA 98027
Claudine Adamo	officer: Executive Vice President	999 LAKE DRIVE, ISSAQUAH WA 98027
James C Klauer	officer: Executive Vice President	999 LAKE DRIVE, ISSAQUAH WA 98027
Patrick J Callans	officer: Executive VP	999 LAKE DRIVE, ISSAQUAH WA 98027
Helena Foulkes	director	ONE CVS DRIVE, WOONSOCKET RI 02895
Susan L Decker	director	C/O YAHOO INC, 701 FIRST AVE, SUNNYVALE CA 94089
Roland Michael Vachris	officer: Executive VP	999 LAKE DRIVE, ISSAQUAH WA 98027
James P. Murphy	officer: Executive VP	999 LAKE DRIVE, ISSAQUAH WA 98027
Kenneth D Denman	director