If You Invested $1000 in Costco a Decade Ago, This is How Much It'd Be Worth Now

How much a stock's price changes over time is important for most investors, since price performance can both impact your investment portfolio and help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.Another thing that can drive investing is the fear of missing out, or FOMO. This particularly applies to tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.What if you'd invested in Costco (COST) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to COST for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?Costco's Business In-DepthWith that in mind, let's take a look at Costco's main business drivers. Based in Issaquah, Washington, Costco Wholesale Corporation sells high volumes of foods and general merchandise (including household products and appliances) at discounted prices through membership warehouses. It is one of the largest warehouse club operators in the United States. The company also operates e-commerce sites in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Australia.The company’s warehouses offer an array of low-priced nationally branded and select private labeled products in a wide range of merchandise categories. Costco offers three types of memberships to its customers: Business, Gold Star (individual), and Executive.As of Dec. 12, 2024, Costco operates 897 warehouses, including 617 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 109 in Canada, 41 in Mexico, 36 in Japan, 29 in the United Kingdom, 19 in Korea, 15 in Australia, 14 in Taiwan, seven in China, five in Spain, two in France, and one each in Iceland, New Zealand and Sweden.Costco generates revenue from two sources: 1) Store sales (Net sales; 98% of fiscal 2022 total revenue) and 2) Membership fees (MFI; 2% of fiscal 2022 total revenue).Costco offers a myriad of food products as well as a vast range of household and lifestyle products, stationeries and appliances. The company also sells gasoline to customers at cheap prices. It offers merchandise in the following categories:Food and Sundries (including dry foods, packaged foods, groceries, snack foods, candy, alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, andcleaning supplies)Hardlines (including major appliances, electronics, health and beauty aids, hardware, and garden and patio)Fresh Foods (including meat, produce, deli, and bakery)Softlines (including apparel and small appliances)Ancillary (including gasoline and pharmacy businesses).Bottom LineWhile anyone can invest, building a lucrative investment portfolio takes research, patience, and a little bit of risk. If you had invested in Costco ten years ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in February 2015 would be worth $7,177.13, or a 617.71% gain, as of February 12, 2025. Investors should keep in mind that this return excludes dividends but includes price appreciation.Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 193.37% and gold's return of 127.88% over the same time frame.Going forward, analysts are expecting more upside for COST. Being a consumer defensive stock, Costco has been surviving the market turmoil pretty well. The discount retailer’s key strengths are strategic investments, a customer-centric approach, merchandise initiatives, and an emphasis on membership growth. These factors have been helping it register decent sales and earnings numbers. We expect Costco to register an 11.5% adjusted earnings per share improvement in fiscal 2025 on 6.6% revenue growth. This outlook reflects Costco’s ability to navigate the challenging operating environment, generate solid sales, and register high membership renewal rates. A favorable product mix, steady store traffic, pricing power, and strong liquidity position should help Costco keep outperforming. While trading at a premium to its peers, its long-term growth prospects should help the stock see a solid upside. The stock has jumped 15.38% over the past four weeks. Additionally, no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 6 higher, for fiscal 2025; the consensus estimate has moved up as well.Zacks Names #1 Semiconductor StockIt's only 1/9,000th the size of NVIDIA which skyrocketed more than +800% since we recommended it. NVIDIA is still strong, but our new top chip stock has much more room to boom.With strong earnings growth and an expanding customer base, it's positioned to feed the rampant demand for Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Internet of Things. Global semiconductor manufacturing is projected to explode from $452 billion in 2021 to $803 billion by 2028.See This Stock Now for Free >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST): Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks