Costco may see best session since listing

Costco Wholesale Corp, the biggest US warehouse club, may have its best holiday-shopping season since going public 23 years ago because most US retailers are preparing to have their worst since 1979.

As Costco snags higher-end shoppers from retail rivals, investors aren't giving the discounter's share price the same bounce as Wal-Mart Stores Inc, up 26 percent in trading this year. Costco is down 2 percent, even as most of its biggest holders have boosted their stakes.

Over the next 12 months, that will change with the warehouse chain likely to outperform the world's largest retailer, gaining 25 percent to $85 a share, according to estimates by Edward Weller, a ThinkPanmure LLC analyst in San Francisco. A surge in the stock would follow an historical relationship between the two chains' shares, based on data compiled by Bloomberg.