Costco raises membership fees for first time since 2017

Costco (COST) is finally raising its membership fees, a move many on Wall Street had been anticipating. Starting September 1, 2024, Gold Star membership fees will increase by $5 to $65, and Executive Memberships will increase by $10 to $130.

The retailer also announced it posted June net sales of $24.48 billion, an increase of 7.4% from a year ago and declared a quarterly cash dividend of $1.16 per share.

Yahoo Finance’s Julie Hyman and Josh Lipton discuss the announcement in the video above.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination Overtime.

This post was written by Stephanie Mikulich.

Video Transcript

Long awaited by investors here, your Costco membership is getting more expensive.

The company announcing it will raise its annual membership fees by $5 in both the US and Canada.

Costco last raised the price of membership back in 2017.

Costco also reported its net sales for the month of June at $24.48 billion.

That’s a nearly $2 billion increase from the same period last year.

But it is really fee increase.

As I said, Josh, investors have been waiting for this one.

We’ve had a couple of people on goodbye or goodbye who have liked Costco but have said Wait for that one.

That’s the next catalyst that’s gonna call it.

Did they say this is when it’s happening?

No.

Nobody knew what it was gonna happen.

They just happened.

They’ve just been waiting for it to happen.

It’s been so long.

Yeah, June.

So June Total Comp says it looks at 5.3% estimate was 6.4%.

But clearly investors are cheering that news that that’s the headline.

That’s what’s setting it up here in the after hours, at least initially.

Yeah, and by the way, the membership increase will be effective September 1st.

Um, so if you’re a Costco member, as they call it or a customer, Um, that that is when it’s going to take effect here.

Um, but that’s really a lever that people were waiting for.

As you say, the comps higher here.

If you look at, let’s see Costco shares year today.

Just taking a quick look.

They’re up by 34% already this year and rising again.

Um, in the after hour session, I’m gonna check to Is that a not quite a record close today?

It looks like it might have been a record close yesterday for Costco before we saw a little bit of a decrease in today’s session.

But, you know, if if the after hours gains hold, we could potentially see a record again on the back of this news, that’s just like what they see