Costco Just Hit $1,000. Is This the Year to ‘Sell in May’ Even on the Safest Stocks?

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Quick Read

A 17% year-to-date leap successful Costco (COST) shares whitethorn person investors considering the “Sell successful May and Go Away” adage. Should they?
Selling a semipermanent compounder connected a seasonal hunch has historically been an costly habit, but are things antithetic now?
The expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 stocks and Costco wasn't 1 of them. Get them present FREE.

Costco (NASDAQ: COST) closed astatine $1,008.79 a stock connected May 8, 2026, leaving the warehouse elephantine perched conscionable supra the psychologically loaded $1,000 line. The setup is what makes the "Sell successful May and Go Away" adage worthy a caller look connected a sanction astir investors deliberation of arsenic bulletproof.

The Setup That Triggers the Question

Costco is up 17.0% twelvemonth to date, contempt being lone 0.1% higher implicit the trailing 12 months. Essentially, the caller summation has travel connected a antiaircraft sanction already trading astatine a 52 trailing P/E and astir 46 connected a guardant basis, with a PEG of 5 and price-to-book adjacent 14. That is 1 of the richest multiples successful retail.

Add a macro wobble. University of Michigan user sentiment fell to a humanities grounds debased of 48.2 successful May 2026, heavy successful pessimistic territory. Insiders person been trimming their positions too: 4 enforcement vice presidents sold banal betwixt March 9 and April 1, 2026, astatine prices betwixt $991 and $1,003.

The expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 stocks and Costco wasn't 1 of them. Get them present FREE.

The Trim Case

The lawsuit for trimming practically writes itself. An outsized year-to-date determination connected a low-beta compounder (beta 0.908) raises the barroom for the backmost half. Comps are tougher to thigh aft +7.4% Q2 FY26 comps and an April nett income people of $23.92 billion, up 13.0% twelvemonth implicit year. And $1,000 has acted arsenic a ceiling before, with shares concisely touching it successful May 2025 lone to drift little into year-end.

The Counter: Gold-Standard Compounder

Paid memberships deed 82.1 million, with an 89.7% worldwide renewal rate, and rank interest income grew 13.6% to $1.355 billion. CFO Gary Millerchip described the user this mode connected the Q2 net call: "Members are focused connected quality, value, and new, breathtaking items. When we conscionable these expectations, members look consenting and capable to spend."

Summer is besides highest warehouse season, and expert targets support climbing: Deutsche Bank is astatine $1,106, Goldman astatine $1,088, Bank of America astatine $1,185. Our interior exemplary pegs a 12-month basal lawsuit of $1,061.16, with a bull lawsuit of $1,125.98 and a carnivore lawsuit of $970.07.