02:27 PM EDT, 09/18/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Costco Wholesale's ( COST ) fiscal fourth-quarter earnings may fall short of expectations due to costs related to early shopping hours for executive members, Oppenheimer said in a Thursday client note.

The warehouse chain reinstated the perk for its executive members at the end of June.

That allows those members to shop in stores from 9 am to 10 am every day before others get in, except for Saturday, when the early access ends at 9:30 am.

Costco is scheduled to announce its results next Thursday. Oppenheimer is projecting fourth-quarter earnings of $5.70, up from its previous forecast of $5.40, but still below a Wall Street estimate of $5.81 that possibly does not reflect expenses tied to early shopping hours, analysts including Rupesh Parikh said in the note.

For the quarter, the company earlier this month reported an 8% year-over-year increase in sales to $84.4 billion, below the FactSet-polled consensus of $86.08 billion.

Costco's shares fell 0.8% in Thursday trade, but have risen 4.2% so far this year, underperforming the S&P 500 index's gain of nearly 13%. Walmart's ( WMT ) shares are up nearly 15% year to date, while Target ( TGT ) is down 34%.

"Consistent with our playbook lately, for longer-term players, we would continue to take advantage of any dips," Parikh said. "Near term, we see limited EPS upside potential, and (Costco) is up against very difficult comparisons in the non-foods category."

Oppenheimer maintained its outperform rating and a price target of $1,130 on the stock.

"We continue to believe a premium valuation is warranted given (Costco's) superior global unit growth prospects, leading competitive position, and track record of driving share gains," the analyst said.

Price: 955.10, Change: -7.93, Percent Change: -0.82