Costco Declares $30 Special Dividend Worth $13.3 Billion and Renews $4 Billion Buyback

Costco Wholesale has declared a $30-per-share special dividend, handing shareholders a one-off payout worth about $13.3 billion and underlining the warehouse retailer’s cash strength after a strong year of sales.

The Issaquah, Washington-based company announced the dividend after US markets closed on Tuesday 10 November, alongside a renewed $4 billion share repurchase programme running through November 2030. The payment will be made on Friday 4 December to shareholders on the register at the close of business on Tuesday 24 November.

The special dividend is a one-off distribution and sits on top of Costco’s regular quarterly dividend, which is unchanged. Costco’s announcement carried no executive commentary and gave no detail on how the payout would be funded.

Twice the size of the last special payout

The $30 payment is double the company’s previous special dividend of $15 per share, declared in December 2023 and paid in January 2024 at a total cost of about $6.7 billion. Costco has a history of returning surplus cash to shareholders in large lump sums rather than lifting its ordinary dividend sharply.

The scale of the payout reflects the cash the retailer has built up. Costco held about $20.21 billion in cash and cash equivalents, plus a further $1.09 billion in short-term investments, at the end of its 2026 financial year on 30 August.

That cash pile was built on a strong year of trading. Costco’s net sales for fiscal 2026 rose 10.1% to $297.2 billion, while net income increased to $9.23 billion. The figures point to a membership model that has kept growing even as American households have faced higher borrowing costs — mortgage rates fell for a fourth straight week only this month, and only after climbing to about 7.5% early last month.

Buyback renewed through 2030

Alongside the dividend, Costco’s board reauthorised a common-stock repurchase programme of up to $4 billion. The new authorisation expires in November 2030 and replaces the current $4 billion programme, adopted in 2023 and due to expire in January 2027, under which $3.1 billion of shares had already been bought back.

The authorisation sets a ceiling rather than a commitment: it permits future purchases but does not require the company to spend the full amount or to follow a fixed schedule. That flexibility matters for investors trying to judge how much cash will actually return to them over the next four years.

What shareholders need to know

For shareholders, the key date is Tuesday 24 November, when investors must be on the register to qualify for the payment. The money will then be paid on Friday 4 December.

Because the dividend is explicitly special, investors should not treat the $30 payment as a recurring increase in Costco’s ordinary dividend. The regular quarterly distribution continues separately, and the company has given no indication that it will rise as a result of this announcement.

The market took the news warmly. Costco shares rose 1.32% on Wednesday 11 November to $1,080.24, up from Tuesday’s close of $1,066.14. The special dividend represents about 2.8% of the company’s closing share price on the day of the announcement.

A strong year behind the payout

The payout comes in a week of strong corporate earnings and a steadier mood on Wall Street, where US stocks steadied after a sharp fall as investors weighed the outcome of the midterm elections. Costco’s decision to hand back more than $13 billion in a single payment is a sign of confidence in its own trading, but it also leaves the company with less of a buffer if consumer spending weakens.

For now, though, the message to shareholders is simple. Costco is sitting on more cash than it needs to run its warehouses, and it has chosen to return a large share of it directly to the people who own the business. Morningstar reported that the board’s decision was announced after the market closed on Tuesday, with the $13.3 billion total making it one of the largest special dividends paid by a US retailer.

The next test for the company will be whether it can keep sales growing at a similar pace into the new financial year — and whether the board reaches for another special payout when the current buyback programme runs its course.