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Tuesday, September 29

Wednesday, September 30

Thursday, October 1

Costco Wholesale (COST)

Consumer Staples – Food & Staples Retailing | Reports September 29, before the open

The Estimize consensus calls for EPS of $1.67, a penny higher than Wall Street. The Estimize community is also expecting higher revenues of $36.64B vs. the Street’s expectation for $36.28B.

What to watch: Same store sales (SSS), while initially immune to the stronger dollar, has taken a dip in the last couple of months. During the Costco’s second fiscal quarter (December – February) SSS came in at 2%, then falling to -1% for Q3 and Q4, with August numbers reported last week coming in at -2%. The negative impact of the stronger dollar has caught up to Costco, and declining oil prices has affected their gasoline sales. Despite these weak spots, there are still a few positives for the company. Costco announced earlier in the year that they were ending their exclusive credit card partnership with American Express in favor of a new deal with Visa. Credit card fees will now decline to nearly 0% from 0.6% under the Amex agreement. It’s also likely the company will increase membership fees in the near future, as the last raise was in 2011 and they tend to up prices by $5 on a 5 year cycle. The rate of expansion has also kept its pace, with Costco opening approximately 30 new warehouses a year. The company has recently come under fire for selling counterfeit Tiffany & Co. rings and was ruled by a federal judge to pay damages which will certainly impact next quarter’s bottom-line.

Diamond Foods (DMND)

Consumer Staples – Food Products| Reports September 29, after the close

The Estimize consensus calls for EPS of $0.23, a penny higher than Wall Street. In contrast, the Estimize community is expecting revenues of $204.88M, slightly lower than the Street’s prediction of $205.40M.