Costco Wholesale Corporation: would “operating margin stays at or above 15 percent” have held?
It would have broken in 11 years of 11: FY2016, FY2017, FY2018, FY2019, FY2020, FY2021, FY2022, FY2023, FY2024, FY2025, FY2026.
On the newest filing, FY2026 lodged 2026-10-07, it stands -11.15 pts from the line, at 3.85%.
Year by year, against the filings
| Fiscal year | Operating margin | On the year | Against 15% | Clear by | Read from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2016 | 3.09% | n/a | broke | -11.91 pts | 2016-10-12 10-K 0000909832-16-000032 |
| FY2017 | 3.19% | +0.10 pts | broke | -11.81 pts | 2017-10-18 10-K 0000909832-17-000014 |
| FY2018 | 3.16% | -0.03 pts | broke | -11.84 pts | 2018-10-26 10-K 0000909832-18-000013 |
| FY2019 | 3.10% | -0.06 pts | broke | -11.90 pts | 2019-10-11 10-K 0000909832-19-000019 |
| FY2020 | 3.26% | +0.16 pts | broke | -11.74 pts | 2020-10-07 10-K 0000909832-20-000017 |
| FY2021 | 3.42% | +0.16 pts | broke | -11.58 pts | 2021-10-06 10-K 0000909832-21-000014 |
| FY2022 | 3.43% | +0.01 pts | broke | -11.57 pts | 2022-10-05 10-K 0000909832-22-000021 |
| FY2023 | 3.35% | -0.08 pts | broke | -11.65 pts | 2023-10-11 10-K 0000909832-23-000042 |
| FY2024 | 3.65% | +0.30 pts | broke | -11.35 pts | 2024-10-09 10-K 0000909832-24-000049 |
| FY2025 | 3.77% | +0.12 pts | broke | -11.23 pts | 2025-10-08 10-K 0000909832-25-000101 |
| FY2026 | 3.85% | +0.08 pts | broke | -11.15 pts | 2026-10-07 10-K 0000909832-26-000093 |
What the series does
- Largest single-year move. FY2023 to FY2024, from 3.35% to 3.65%, a change of +0.30 pts, filed 2024-10-09 under 0000909832-24-000049. The filing is the place to read why; this reports the size and nothing about the cause. The average move between filed years, in either direction, is 0.11%, which is the scale of ordinary movement to judge a threshold against.
- Largest single-year fall. FY2022 to FY2023, from 3.43% to 3.35%, a change of -0.08 pts.
- Closest to the line. FY2026, at 3.85% against 15%, which is 11.15 pts the wrong side of it. A threshold set anywhere inside that gap would have produced a different answer for this company.
- Span of the filed series. Lowest in FY2016 at 3.09%, highest in FY2026 at 3.85%, averaging 3.39% across the years that could be tested.
- Where the answer would flip. Any line at or below 3.09% would have held in every year that could be tested. Anything above it would have broken in FY2016 at the latest.
- First filed year to newest. FY2016 at 3.09%, FY2026 at 3.85%, a net +0.76 pts across the window on file. The path between them is the column above, not a straight line between these two.
11 of 11 filed years could be tested. A missing figure counts as neither held nor broken.
How demanding 15% is
Against the 3616 companies holding this figure on 2026-10-21, that line sits between the p75 mark of 13.09% and the p90 mark of 25.30%, which says how demanding it is and nothing about where to set it.
The threshold is the reader's to choose. This is what one would have done, not advice. Where this line comes from
What this page leaves out
Evaluated over 11 filed fiscal years, FY2016 to FY2026. Accounts filed before this company began tagging its statements in XBRL are not machine-readable and are outside this page. No share price is involved in any figure here, so nothing on this page is limited by the depth of our price archive.
Filings get mis-tagged and restated, so check a figure against the submission it names. Coverage for a company you own.
Related
- Ask this about your own company, at your own number
- Apple Inc. against the same line. It held in all 10 years on file.
- Debt to equity stays at or below 1.0, on the same filings. It held in all 8 years on file.