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Financial Ratios and Ratio

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Financial Ratios and Ratio
1. Introduction

This report provides a financial quarterly trend analysis for Costco Wholesale Corporation, Inc. founded in 1983. Costco Wholesale Corporation is the seventh largest retailer company in the world. As of July 2012, it was the fifth largest retailer, and the largest membership warehouse club chain in the United States ("Wikipedia, the free," 2011). Costco Wholesale Corporation’s stock is publicly traded on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation (NASDAQ) under the symbol “COST”, which I will use as reference throughout this report.

Costco is a company with an inspiring story. They have revolutionized the shopping experience at its maximum, breaking the rules of grocery shopping experience. In addition, Costco Wholesales have a novel business concept compare to its major competitors, building millions of loyal customers and expanding across the world every year. The followings are the main reasons why I chose to analyze this company:

* Costco’s business strategy is fascinating compared to other wholesale companies in the industry in how their stores are presented to the public. Costco supermarkets are made of cement floors, merchandises are laid on pallets, groceries are not handled in bags, aisles are not labeled, and lastly, they do not advertise. This business strategy save millions of dollars in operating cost every year. * Costco value their employees. The hourly wage for a Costco employee is one of the highest in the world, the average Costco employee make $20.00 an hour and about 90% of them are fully covered by insurance (Quintanilla, 2012). * Costco stocks rose 5000% during the past few years and despite the recent recession, the company posted record sales (Quintanilla, 2012). * The prices of goods at Costco are around 30% lower than the prices at a regular supermarket. This is a result of their rule that nothing is marked up more than 15% when a typical supermarket has a 25% markup and



Bibliography: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (2011, 29 11). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costco Quintanilla, C Costco wholesale corp. (2012, April 10). Retrieved from http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/COST/profile Costco Wholesale YCharts. (2011, November 25). Retrieved from http://ycharts.com/companies/COST CNBC Investopedia. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/currentratio.asp Investopedia Investopedia. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/returnonequity.asp#axzz28ZHmfXpq Investopedia. (2012). Price-earnings ratio. Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/price-earningsratio.asp Investopedia Investopedia. (2012) Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/earnings-power.asp#axzz28ZHmfXpq Investopedia. (2012) Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/payoutratio.asp#axzz28ZHmfXpq

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