# Costco is paying out $13.3 billion in one shot, more than the $9.2 billion it earned all last year

Costco declared a record $30-a-share special dividend and a new $4 billion buyback. The payout equals about 142% of last year's free cash flow and roughly 62% of its cash pile.

By Patrick Karsh · 567 Business
Published: 2026-11-11T00:07:24.722458Z
Updated: 2026-11-11T00:07:57.084932Z
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Costco will hand shareholders about $13.3 billion in a single payment next month. That is more than the $9.2 billion the retailer earned in its entire last fiscal year. The board declared a special cash dividend of $30 a share on Tuesday, payable December 4 to shareholders of record at the close on November 24, [Costco said in a statement](https://investor.costco.com/news/news-details/2026/Costco-Wholesale-Corporation-Declares-30-Special-Cash-Dividend-and-Reauthorizes-Stock-Repurchase-Program/default.aspx). It also approved a new $4 billion stock buyback that runs to November 2030.

The payout is the largest special dividend in Costco's history and double the $15 it paid in January 2024. It lands on a day when hot inflation data pushed the 10-year Treasury yield above 5% and put a December Federal Reserve rate hike on the table, [CoinDesk reported](https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/11/10/live-news-traders-price-in-fed-rate-hike-for-december-as-bitcoin-and-gold-retreat). While much of the market worried about the cost of money, Costco said it had money to spare.

## A check bigger than a year of profit

The headline number is easy to check against Costco's own books. In the 52 weeks ended August 30, 2026, Costco earned net income of $9.226 billion on $297.2 billion in net sales, [according to its fiscal 2026 results](https://investor.costco.com/news/news-details/2026/Costco-Wholesale-Corporation-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Fiscal-Year-2026-Operating-Results/default.aspx). The new special dividend is about 1.44 times that figure.

It is also bigger than the cash the business threw off after paying for new warehouses. Operating cash flow was $15.8 billion last fiscal year, and capital spending was $6.4 billion. That leaves about $9.4 billion of free cash flow, so the $13.3 billion payout is roughly 142% of it.

The table below uses figures from Costco's fiscal 2026 report and Tuesday's announcement. All amounts are US dollars for the year ended August 30, 2026, unless noted.

| Measure | Amount |
| --- | ---: |
| Special dividend (Dec. 4, 2026) | $13.3 billion |
| Net income, fiscal 2026 | $9.2 billion |
| Free cash flow, fiscal 2026 (our calculation) | $9.4 billion |
| Regular dividends paid, fiscal 2026 | $2.5 billion |
| Stock buybacks, fiscal 2026 | $0.8 billion |

The point is the scale. In one payment, Costco will return more than five times what it paid in regular dividends all last year, and about 16 times what it spent on buybacks.

## Where the money comes from

Costco had $20.2 billion in cash and cash equivalents plus $1.1 billion in short-term investments on August 30, its balance sheet shows. That is $21.3 billion in total. The special dividend would use about 62% of that pile.

Cash had piled up fast. Costco started the fiscal year with $14.2 billion in cash and ended it with $20.2 billion, a gain of about $6 billion in 12 months. Debt is small next to that: $2.2 billion is due within a year and $3.9 billion is long-term.

Costco's statement did not say how it would fund the dividend or the buyback, and it included no comment from executives, [investingLive noted](https://investinglive.com/stocks/costco-declares-30-special-dividend-worth-13-3-billion-renews-4-billion-buyback/). Past special dividends were usually paid from cash on hand rather than new borrowing, the outlet said.

## Every special dividend, side by side

Costco has paid a special dividend every few years since 2012. The amounts have grown with the share price. The figures below come from [Costco's investor relations records as compiled by The Motley Fool](https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/07/03/will-costco-pay-a-special-dividend-in-2026-heres-w/) and Tuesday's announcement.

```chart
type: column
title: Costco special dividends per share, by payment year
prefix: $
source: [The Motley Fool, from Costco investor relations](https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/07/03/will-costco-pay-a-special-dividend-in-2026-heres-w/), [Costco](https://investor.costco.com/news/news-details/2026/Costco-Wholesale-Corporation-Declares-30-Special-Cash-Dividend-and-Reauthorizes-Stock-Repurchase-Program/default.aspx)
---
Year | Special dividend
2012 | 7
2015 | 5
2017 | 7
2020 | 10
2024 | 15
2026 | 30
```

Costco shares closed at $1,066.14 on Tuesday, [according to a Nasdaq quote shown by The Motley Fool](https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/07/03/will-costco-pay-a-special-dividend-in-2026-heres-w/). At that price, the $30 payout is worth about 2.8% of a share. Analysts had estimated that about $24 a share would match the roughly 2.4% yield of the 2024 payout, investingLive reported, so the board went further than that benchmark. The stock rose in after-hours trading after the news, [Seeking Alpha reported](https://seekingalpha.com/news/4670188-costco-gains-after-announcing-its-first-special-dividend-in-almost-three-years).

## The buyback barely got used

The new buyback deserves a closer look. Costco's old $4 billion program was adopted in 2023 and was set to expire in January 2027. Costco used $3.1 billion of it. The new plan, also $4 billion, replaces it and runs for four more years.

Costco spent only $848 million buying back stock last fiscal year, its cash flow statement shows. Its share count barely moved: 443.3 million shares at the end of fiscal 2026, against 443.2 million a year earlier. Management has signaled that it prefers lump-sum payouts. Chief Financial Officer Gary Millerchip said earlier this year that, at Costco's current valuation, a special dividend is usually the best way to return excess cash while keeping room to invest in growth, according to investingLive.

## What investors are saying

The news spread quickly on X among finance accounts. Gurgavin, a markets commentator with more than 460,000 followers, put the cost to Costco at $13.3 billion in an all-caps post.

https://x.com/gurgavin/status/2120271529514533123

WOLF Financial listed every Costco special dividend since 2012 to show how much bigger this one is.

https://x.com/WOLF_Financial/status/2120265019686293688

Dividendology, a dividend-investing account, pointed out that the payout is larger than Costco's free cash flow for the year. That matches our own math from Costco's filings.

https://x.com/dividendology/status/2120267037133930524

On Reddit, dividend investors have argued about how these payouts move the stock. After the $15 special dividend in late 2023, a [thread on r/dividends](https://www.reddit.com/r/dividends/comments/1dyngfr/why_didnt_costco_stock_drop_from_15_special/) asked why the share price did not seem to fall by $15 on the ex-dividend date. In theory, a stock should drop by about the amount of the dividend when it goes ex-dividend, because that cash leaves the company.

## What shareholders need to know

To get the $30, you need to be a shareholder of record at the close on November 24. Under standard US settlement, the stock is expected to go ex-dividend on or around that date, investingLive said. The money arrives December 4, on top of Costco's regular quarterly dividend.

The bigger question is what comes after. Costco is sending out more cash than it earned last year at a time when [stocks have swung wildly](/news/sp500-rebound-best-day-since-april) and the Fed is leaning toward higher rates after [another hot inflation reading](/news/jobless-claims-lowest-since-1969). Costco still runs 945 warehouses, including 653 in the US and Puerto Rico. It will still have several billion dollars in cash after the payment. But the cushion it built over the past year will shrink by more than half in a single day.