Costco Wholesale (COST) Owner Earnings per Share (TTM)

Costco Wholesale Annual Data
	Trend	Aug14	Aug15	Aug16	Aug17	Aug18	Aug19	Aug20	Aug21	Aug22	Aug23
Owner Earnings per Share (TTM)							6.54	12.02	11.45	6.91	13.48

Costco Wholesale Quarterly Data
	May19	Aug19	Nov19	Feb20	May20	Aug20	Nov20	Feb21	May21	Aug21	Nov21	Feb22	May22	Aug22	Nov22	Feb23	May23	Aug23	Nov23	Feb24
Owner Earnings per Share (TTM)																11.11	10.99	13.48	18.10	12.66

For the Discount Stores subindustry, Costco Wholesale's Price-to-Owner-Earnings, along with its competitors' market caps and Price-to-Owner-Earnings 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.

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

* The bar in red indicates where Costco Wholesale's Price-to-Owner-Earnings falls into.

Costco Wholesale Owner Earnings per Share (TTM) Calculation

In 1986 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter, Warren Buffett defined owner earnings as follows:

"These represent (a) reported earnings plus (b) depreciation, depletion, amortization, and certain other non-cash charges...less (c) the average annual amount of capitalized expenditures for plant and equipment, etc. that the business requires to fully maintain its long-term competitive position and its unit volume. (If the business requires additional working capital to maintain its competitive position and unit volume, the increment also should be included in (c))...Our owner-earnings equation does not yield the deceptively precise figures provided by GAAP, since (c) must be a guess - and one sometimes very difficult to make. Despite this problem, we consider the owner earnings figure, not the GAAP figure, to be the relevant item for valuation purposes - both for investors in buying stocks and for managers in buying entire businesses...All of this points up the absurdity of the 'cash flow' numbers that are often set forth in Wall Street reports. These numbers routinely include (a) plus (b) - but do not subtract (c)."

To make it simple, then you will have:

Owner Earnings per Share (TTM) = (Net Income + Depreciation, Depletion and Amortization + Change In Deferred Tax - 5Y Average of Maintenance Capital Expenditure + Change In Working Capital) / Shares Outstanding (Diluted Average)

Costco Wholesale's Owner Earnings per Share (TTM) Calculation:

1. Start with "Net Income" from income statement. Costco Wholesale's Net Income for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Feb. 2024 was $6,794 Mil.

2. "Depreciation, Depletion and Amortization" is from cashflow statement. Costco Wholesale's Depreciation, Depletion and Amortization for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Feb. 2024 was $2,175 Mil. This needs to be added back because company does not actually need to pay cash for it. It is a non-cash item.

3. Other non-cash charges usually include "Stock Based Compensation" and "Change In Deferred Tax":
However, to be conservative, GuruFocus will not add Stock Based Compensation back to net income. Costco Wholesale's Change In Deferred Tax for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Feb. 2024 was $-4 Mil.

4. Average maintenance capital expenditure over a business/industry cycle: 5-Year Average Maintenance Capital Expenditure = $3,520 Mil

It is usually best to take a long-term average of maintenance capital expenditure. Ideally this would be as long as 10 years and include at least one economic downturn. However, since many companies do not have as long as 10-year history, here GuruFocus uses the latest 5 years data to do the calculation. To smooth out unusual years but reflect recent developments, we take an average of the 5 year maintenance capital expenditure.

The following shows how to get maintenance capital expenditure.

First, calculate the revenue change regarding to the previous quarter. If the revenue decreased from the previous quarter, then the Maintenance Capital Expenditure = Capital Expenditure (positive).
Second, if the revenue increased from the previous quarter, then calculate the percentage of Net PPE as of corresponding Revenue.
Growth Capital Expenditure = Percentage of Property, Plant and Equipment as of corresponding Revenue * Revenue Increase
Third, calculate Capital Expenditure (positive) - Growth Capital Expenditure.
If [Capital Expenditure (positive) - Growth Capital Expenditure] was negative, then the Maintenance Capital Expenditure = Capital Expenditure (positive).
If [Capital Expenditure (positive) - Growth Capital Expenditure] was positive, then the Maintenance Capital Expenditure = Capital Expenditure (positive) - Growth Capital Expenditure.
Fourth, get the average of the 5 years maintenance capital expenditure.

Costco Wholesale's 5-Year Average Maintenance Capital Expenditure = $3,520 Mil

5. "Change In Working Capital" is from cashflow statement. Costco Wholesale's Change In Working Capital for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Feb. 2024 was $187 Mil.
Note: GuruFocus' Change in Working Capital is provided by Morningstar. It is calculated by adding the items under "Change in operating assets and liabilities" (may refer to a different name for different company) section in Cash Flow Statement from original financial report. And sometimes it includes non-current parts of assets and liabilities.

6. Costco Wholesale's Shares Outstanding (Diluted Average) for the months ended in Feb. 2024 was 444.754 Mil.

Costco Wholesale's Onwer Earnings Per Share for Feb. 2024 is calculated as:

* 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.

Be Aware

Assumption: Companies usually do not report maintenance capital expenditures and growth capital expenditures separately. Here we use estimated numbers and average them over 5 years. The method to estimate maintenance capital expenditures can be found in above part 4.

Note: GuruFocus' Change In Working Capital is provided by Morningstar. It is calculated by adding the items under "Change in operating assets and liabilities" (may refer to a different name for different company) section in Cash Flow Statement from original financial report. And it includes non-current parts of assets and liabilities.

Costco Wholesale Owner Earnings per Share (TTM) Related Terms

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Costco Wholesale (COST) Business Description