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Costco sells inventory before supplier invoices arrive, letting vendors finance its shelves and generating 29.1% ROE on just 3% profit margins.

COST shares trade at roughly 37 times fiscal 2028 EPS, while 82.9 million members renewing near 92% power the long-term bull case.

This lithium producer surpassed a $1B private valuation, joining some of America's most powerful startups. Now you can invest in EnergyX alongside global giants like General Motors, but only through July 16. (sponsor)

Consumer advocate Clark Howard has long pointed out an oddity about Costco that almost no other big-box retailer can match: the company frequently sells inventory before it even has to pay the supplier for it. That is a genuine cash flow superpower, and it sits underneath the pricing model that has made Costco (NASDAQ:COST) the most unusual retailer in America.

Costco makes its money on membership fees, using razor-thin retail margins on merchandise to lock members in. Trailing profit margin sits at just 3.01% and operating margin at 3.67%, yet return on equity is 29.1%. That combination only works because inventory turns fast enough to fund itself.

CEO Ron Vachris said it plainly on the fiscal Q3 2026 call: "Our goal is to be the first to lower prices and last to raise them." He backed it up with specific Kirkland Signature cuts, including Crispy Wings from $16.99 to $14.99 and king-size sheets from $89.99 to $79.99. CFO Gary Millerchip added that new Kirkland items offer "savings of at least 15% to 20% to the national brand equivalent with equal or better quality."

When a retailer sells a pallet of Kirkland detergent before the supplier invoice is due, the working capital cycle inverts. Suppliers effectively finance the shelves. That is why Costco can afford to run a reported gross margin of just 11.04% in Q3 2026 while net income still rose 15.19% to $2.19 billion on revenue of $70.53 billion, up 11.58% year over year.

July 16 is the Final Day to Tap Into the Lithium Boom (sponsor)General Motors, POSCO, and 50,000+ everyday investors have already backed lithium producer EnergyX.

Here's why you should do the same before their July 16 investment deadline: lithium prices are up 75% this year, with demand projected to grow a staggering 5X by 2040.

With tech that can recover up to 3X more lithium than traditional methods, EnergyX is preparing to unlock up to 15M+ tons. Become a private-stage EnergyX investor before the July 16 deadline.

The membership engine is the other half of the trick. Membership fee income hit $1.37 billion in Q3, up 10.7%, with 82.9 million paid members and a 92.2% U.S. and Canada renewal rate. Executive memberships grew 9.6% to 41.2 million and now drive roughly three quarters of sales. For investors watching pattern-recognition setups in long-duration compounders, the loyalty math is the real moat.

June 2026 net sales came in at $29.24 billion, up 10.6%, with digitally-enabled comps up 20.9%. RBC Capital Markets initiated with a Sector Perform and a $1,000 price target, praising the model but flagging valuation at roughly 37 times fiscal 2028 EPS. Shares closed at $921.31 on July 10, down 6.83% over the past month but up 6.55% year to date.

The bear case is valuation compression. The bull case is that Costco keeps cutting Kirkland prices while total U.S. retail sales sit at $763.7B in May, in the 90.9th percentile of the trailing year. As long as members keep renewing near 90% and suppliers keep floating the inventory, the pricing secret keeps compounding.

A US startup just passed a $1 billion private valuation, joining billion-dollar private companies like OpenAI and ByteDance. Unlike those other unicorns, you can invest in EnergyX right now; but only until July 16.

Over 50,000 people already have, along with global giants like General Motors and POSCO.

Here's why there's so much interest: EnergyX's patented tech can recover up to 3X more lithium than traditional methods. That's a big deal, as demand for lithium is expected to 5X current production levels by 2040. Become an early-stage EnergyX shareholder before the 7/16 investment deadline.

Contact editorial@247wallst.com for any questions or corrections.