Costco’s valuation ‘doesn’t match decelerating metrics’, says Roth Capital

Roth Capital analyst Bill Kirk keeps a Neutral rating and $907 price target on Costco (COST) after its Q4 results but notes that the quarter marked a deceleration from Q3 and the total company same store sales marked a six-quarter low. Costco’s renewal rates worldwide and in North America also decelerated by 40 basis points from Q3, the firm notes, adding that regardless of their “strong absolute levels”, the decelerating comps and declining renewals make it difficult to maintain valuation “nearly two standard deviations above 10-year averages “, the analyst tells investors in a research note.