COSTCostco
Is the business good?
A genuinely good business: 7 of 9 health tests passed and earnings fully cash-backed (1.9×).
High fundamental quality. Nine pass/fail tests of year-over-year health from the filings.
Operating profit is fully backed by cash. Conversion is improving vs a year ago.
Margins have held roughly steady, a stable cost structure.
Against the whole market›
Percentile against every name Ryufin tracks. Higher is better; the tick marks the middle of the market. Context, not one of the checks above.
Where this answer is blind. The F-score rewards improvement, so an already-elite company can score mid-pack.
How good a business is COST?
Costco earns 43% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 34 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 3.9%
Operating margin · Discount Stores median 4.5% · 12 months to Q3 2026
- Cash conversion
- 1.86×
Cash conversion · 1.47× a year ago · operating cash flow covers the operating profit after tax
- Share count, year on year
- −0.10%
Share count, year on year · flat: no meaningful dilution
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2021 | 3.4% |
| FY2022 | 3.4% |
| FY2023 | 3.4% |
| FY2024 | 3.6% |
| FY2025 | 3.8% |
| FY2026 | 3.9% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q3 2026
- 13%
- Operating margin12 months to Q3 2026
- 3.9%
- Net margin12 months to Q3 2026
- 3.0%
- Free cash flow margin
- 3.4%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $270.6B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $9.23B
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $8.13B
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 43%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion is operating cash flow over operating profit after tax.
Consumer Defensive
Ranks #50 of 131 by RyuScore