Costco Sees Profits Jump on Membership-Fee Strength

2017 has been a rocky year for Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST). The warehouse retailer proved vulnerable to some of the same headwinds that have hit its peers in the big-box retail sector. Some saw efforts to take greater advantage of its positive network effect by raising membership fees as a good way to try to jump-start earnings growth, but others feared that trends favoring e-commerce specialists over brick-and-mortar companies might weigh on Costco going forward.

Coming into Thursday's fiscal fourth-quarter financial report, Costco investors had high hopes that it could continue positive momentum from the previous quarter and find ways to move forward strategically. Costco's final numbers were better than most had expected, yet shareholders didn't seem entirely convinced that things were all good for the warehouse retailer. Let's look more closely at Costco Wholesale and how it did to finish its fiscal year.

Image source: Costco Wholesale.

Source: Fool.com