Costco Wholesale (COST) Shares Outstanding (EOP) : 444 Mil (As of Feb. 2024)

Costco Wholesale Shares Outstanding (EOP) Chart

Costco Wholesale Annual Data
	Trend	Aug14	Aug15	Aug16	Aug17	Aug18	Aug19	Aug20	Aug21	Aug22	Aug23
Shares Outstanding (EOP)		Get a 7-Day Free Trial					439.63	441.26	441.83	442.66	442.79

Costco Wholesale Quarterly Data
	May19	Aug19	Nov19	Feb20	May20	Aug20	Nov20	Feb21	May21	Aug21	Nov21	Feb22	May22	Aug22	Nov22	Feb23	May23	Aug23	Nov23	Feb24
Shares Outstanding (EOP)	Get a 7-Day Free Trial															443.48	443.15	442.79	443.79	443.50

Competitive Comparison of Costco Wholesale's Shares Outstanding (EOP)

For the Discount Stores subindustry, Costco Wholesale's Shares Outstanding (EOP), along with its competitors' market caps and Shares Outstanding (EOP) 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's Shares Outstanding (EOP) Distribution in the Retail - Defensive Industry

For the Retail - Defensive industry and Consumer Defensive sector, Costco Wholesale's Shares Outstanding (EOP) distribution charts can be found below:

* The bar in red indicates where Costco Wholesale's Shares Outstanding (EOP) falls into.

Costco Wholesale Shares Outstanding (EOP) Calculation

Shares outstanding are shares that have been authorized, issued, and purchased by investors and are held by them. They have voting rights and represent ownership in the corporation by the person that holds the shares. They should be distinguished from treasury shares, which are shares held by the corporation itself, having no exercisable rights.

Shares outstanding can be calculated as either basic or fully diluted. The fully diluted shares outstanding count includes diluting securities, such as options, warrants or convertibles.

Please note: GuruFocus named Shares Outstanding (EOP) is the shares for that end of period. It is usually used to calculate balance sheet related items, such as Book Value per Share, etc. While Shares Outstanding (Diluted Average) and Shares Outstanding (Basic Average) are the weighted average shares over a period of time (a year, a quarter, or so). They are usually used to calculate income statement or cashflow statement related items, such as Earnings per Share (Diluted), etc.

Costco Wholesale  (NAS:COST) Shares Outstanding (EOP) Explanation

A company may buy back shares or issue shares in any fiscal period. If a company buys back shares, we should observe that the total number of shares decline. If the company issues new shares, the number of shares outstanding increases.

Usually the presence of treasury shares and a history of buyback are good indicators that company has competitive advantage. But studies have shown that companies usually buy back at wrong time. Buying back shares below its intrinsic value increases value for remaining shareholders. Buying back overvalued shares destroys value for existing shareholders.

Be Aware

Warren Buffett looks for consistency and upward long term trend. Because of share repurchase it is possible for net earnings trend to differ from EPS trend. He preferred net income over EPS. The companies with durable competitive advantage companies report higher % net earnings to total revenues.

Important: If a company is showing net earnings history greater than 20% on total revenues, it is probably benefiting from a long term competitive advantage.

If net earnings is less than 10%, likely to be in a highly competitive business.

Costco Wholesale Shares Outstanding (EOP) Related Terms

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Costco Wholesale (COST) Business Description