costco wholesale corp’s stock slid 17 friday after it reported yet another month of samestore sales declines in june although it blamed the move on a lower price for gasoline and not stress on inflationweary consumers the company’s samestore sales fell 14 in the month and were down 25 in the us that was wider than the 03 decline posted in may total sales edged up to 2286 billion from 2278 billion a year ago the average gas price was down 24 in june from a year ago when prices were riding high excluding gas and foreign exchange samestore sales rose 3 in june and were higher in the us canada and in international markets the average transaction size fell 54 partly due to the lower gas price foot traffic rose across the board and was up 36 in the us food candy sundries tires and health and beauty were the strongerperforming categories the company said home furnishings toys and sporting goods were among the weaker categories da davidson analysts said the samestore sales decline was the biggest since april of 2020 as the covid pandemic was taking hold and the biggest noncovidimpacted decline since july 2016 “despite slowing sales cost cost has been an outperformer in our space yeartodate up 180 versus the market up 149 spx and the xrt up 46” analysts led by michael baker wrote in a note to clients referring to the spdr sp retail etf xrt “but we believe the recent run of somewhat softer comps rather than the typical beats and raises may cause a pause in the stock” said the note da davidson had a neutral rating on the stock even adjusted for the lower gas price and forex impacts the transaction size was negative “which could be a signal that consumers are tightening up their budgets in the uncertain environment” the note added “solid traffic growth in part may be explained by cost’s model being able to offer discounted prices to value oriented consumers relative to other grocery businesses” said the analysts who had a neutral rating on costco stock see also costco to clamp down on sharing of membership cards truist analysts took a more upbeat view and said while sales were a bit soft core trends remain steady necessities like food and sundries are still the main driver of the company’s topline performance rising by a high singledigit percentage while discretionary items are sagging down in the low singledigits “overall we believe its value proposition should allow the company to continue to drive incremental share gains and costco can manage margins better than most we remain buyers of cost” analysts led by scot ciccarelli wrote in a note see more grocery prices are still going up but costco membership fees aren’t for now oppenheimer which had an outperform rating on the stock the equivalent of buy agreed multiyear us sales trends “remain consistent” analysts led by rupesh parikh wrote in a note “we continue to look favorably upon cost and last month we readded shares back to top pick status” said the note “a membership fee increase and a special dividend still represent potential positive catalysts down the road in our view” don’t miss ‘greedflation’ is replacing inflation as companies raise prices for bigger profits report finds