On Thursday morning, we'll get the first-quarter 2008 results from warehouse retailer Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST). Go back and check out last quarter's joyful report, then come back to see whether you'd buy this one for a dollar.

What Fools say:

Here's how Costco's CAPS scoring rates against some of its peers and competitors:

Market Cap (millions)

Trailing P/E Ratio

CAPS Rating

Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE:WMT)

$199,520

16.3

**

Target (NYSE:TGT)

$46,195

16.3

****

Costco

$30,928

30.2

****

Best Buy (NYSE:BBY)

$22,290

18.9

***

BJ's Wholesale Club (NYSE:BJ)

$2,378

28.3

**

Data taken from Yahoo! Finance and Motley Fool CAPS on 12/11/2007.

Costco's stock looks rather pricey next to its rivals, but our CAPS players still like the stock, thanks to a unique high-end store concept and great management. On the downside, our bears see a recession coming, and they think that Costco is in for more hurtin' than most retailers.

What management says:
In the last earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Rick Galanti noted that continued comparable-stores growth around 4%-5% would place bottom-line results close to the top of the guidance range. Since Galanti also called the Thomson First Call earnings estimate of $0.59 per share "a shade high," it sounds like we should expect a result somewhere in the neighborhood of $0.55.

What management does:
These margins are slim, even for a bulk-oriented retailer. That's OK, as long as the net margin remains positive and revenue growth outruns inflation. Still, it's a bit disappointing to see earnings growth backing up into shrinkage territory.

Margins

5/06

9/06

11/06

2/07

5/07

9/07

Gross

12.4%

12.3%

12.3%

12.3%

12.2%

12.3%

Operating

2.8%

2.7%

2.7%

2.6%

2.5%

2.5%

Net

1.9%

1.8%

1.8%

1.7%

1.7%

1.7%

FCF/Revenue

1.1%

1%

1.2%

0.4%

1.3%

1.1%

Y-O-Y Growth

5/06

9/06

11/06

2/07

5/07

9/07

Revenue

10.9%

13.6%

13%

12.1%

11.9%

7.1%

Earnings

9.7%

3.8%

3.5%

0.1%

-3.3%

-1.9%

All data courtesy of Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's. Data reflects trailing-12-month performance for the quarters ended in the named months.

One Fool says:
The share price is up some 22% since the last earnings report, and it keeps pushing the all-time high limits higher. The reasons for this optimism aren't entirely clear -- after all, aren't we supposed to be headed for a severe consumer crash?

Perhaps high-end consumers are coming to the rescue here. If Tiffany (NYSE:TIF) and Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) are doing all right, then Costco should remain the warehouse chain to beat. Then again, even the mighty N has taken its lumps lately. Costco needs to impress on Thursday in order to support its lofty valuation -- and I'm not sure that will happen.

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