Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) rose in morning trades, reversing an earlier drop, after the warehouse retailer reported flat comparable-store sales for September, better than the StreetAccount estimate of a 0.8 percent drop.
Shares gained 0.6% to $148.91 at 9:49 a.m. in New York, expanding this year’s gain to 5%.
Comparable sales for the month grew 8% after excluding the negative impacts from gasoline price deflation and foreign exchange, the Issaquah, Washington-based company said in a statement late on Wednesday.
The company reported net sales of $10.75bn for the five weeks ended October 4, up 2% from $10.57bn in the same month last year.
Costco currently operates 687 warehouses, including 481 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 89 in Canada, 36 in Mexico, 27 in the United Kingdom, 23 in Japan, 12 in Korea, 11 in Taiwan, seven in Australia and one in Spain.
The company plans to open up to an additional 12 new warehouses before the end of calendar year 2015.