Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call September 26, 2023 5:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Richard Galanti - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Simeon Gutman - Morgan Stanley

Michael Lasser - UBS

Chuck Grom - Gordon Haskett

Peter Benedict - Baird

Erica Eiler - Oppenheimer

Brandon Cheatham - Citigroup

Greg Melich - Evercore

Kelly Bania - BMO Capital Markets

Oliver Chen - TD Cowen

Scott Ciccarelli - Truist

Scott Mushkin - R5 Capital

Chris Horvers - JPMorgan

John Heinbockel - Guggenheim

Joe Feldman - Telsey Advisory Group

Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Costco Wholesale Corporation Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Operating Results Call. Today's call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Richard Galanti, CFO. Please go ahead, sir.

Richard Galanti

Thank you, Lisa, and good afternoon to everyone. I will start by stating that these discussions will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events, results and/or performance to differ materially from those indicated by such statements. The risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those outlined in today's call, as well as other risks identified from time to time in the Company's public statements and reports filed with the SEC. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and the Company does not undertake to update these statements, except as required by law.

In today's press release, we reported operating results for the fourth quarter of fiscal '23, the 17 weeks ended September 3. These results and the figures presented today compare to last fiscal year's 16-week fourth quarter.

Reported net income for the 17-week fourth quarter came in at $2.16 billion or $4.86 per diluted share, compared to $1.868 billion or $4.20 per diluted share in the 16-week fourth quarter last year. In terms of sales, net sales for the 17-week fourth quarter were $77.43 billion, an increase of 9.4% from $70.76 billion in the 16-week fourth quarter last year.

Comparable sales for the fourth quarter, and these figures are like-for-like number of weeks. In the U.S., reported was 0.2% comp. Excluding gas deflation and FX in the U.S., it would have been 3.1%.

Canada, reported was 1.8%, and excluding gas deflation and FX, 7.4%. Other International reported 5.5%, and again excluding gas deflation and FX, 4.4%. Also total Company reported 1.1% comp and 3.8% ex-gas deflation and FX.