Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) is a great company with a pricey stock. I shop at Costco. My late father loved Costco. I have owned Costco stock. But at $243 per share, its opening price on Sept. 10, it has a market cap of $106 billion and an above-average price to earnings ratio of 35 for a retail company expecting sales of about $135 billion when it reports its fiscal year Oct. 4.
For a retailer, that’s expensive. Walmart (NYSE:WMT) has a market cap of $280 billion on $500 billion in sales.
Retailers sell at a discount to sales because their margins are wafer-thin.....More>>>