By Ananya Mariam Rajesh(Reuters) -Costco’s shares closed down 7.6% on Friday for its worst day since Might 2022 after the membership-only retail chain missed second-quarter income expectations and signaled a destructive influence from decrease gasoline costs.Nonetheless, at the very least seven brokerages raised their worth goal on Costco, with Jefferies elevating essentially the most to $905 after the retailer’s second-quarter income rose 6% to $58.44 billion, however fell in need of LSEG estimates of $59.16 billion.”Gasoline worth deflation negatively impacted whole reported comp gross sales … the typical worldwide promoting worth per gallon of gasoline was down roughly 3.5% versus final yr,” Costco’s outgoing CFO Richard Gallanti stated.”The inventory simply had a really robust run into the earnings print, and so we see this quite a bit with Costco the place … inventory will unload on monetary information after which recovers inside just a few weeks or one thing,” Telsey Advisory Group analyst Joseph Feldman stated.For the previous a number of quarters, Costco had seen a pullback in demand for higher-margin items similar to home equipment, residence furnishings and electronics. U.S. retail gross sales had fallen by essentially the most in 10 months in January as clients remained cautious heading into 2024.Nevertheless, comparable gross sales, excluding gas and forex fluctuations, noticed a 5.8% improve benefiting from robust gross sales for home equipment and the retailer’s efforts to decrease costs on choose merchandise that attracted shoppers seeking to store by the penny.”Their underlying same-store gross sales are very robust, they’re getting excellent site visitors into the shops and that is the largest signal of well being as a retailer,” Feldman added.Brokerages consider the retailer is able to attracting clients in an unsure atmosphere and driving income progress by means of robust demand, membership charges and decrease costs.Costco shares closed at $725.56 and its median worth goal is at $780, in keeping with LSEG knowledge.(Reporting by Ananya Mariam Rajesh in Bengaluru; Modifying by Tasim Zahid and Alan Barona)