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Source document· December 29, 2025

The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights Target and Costco Wholesale

View original at finance.yahoo.com
The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights Target and Costco Wholesale For Immediate Release Chicago, IL – December 29, 2025 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog…
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  • Costco stands out as the stronger investment candidate, supported by its membership-based business model, high customer loyalty and consistent operational efficiency

    80% confidence
  • On-shelf availability for key items improved more than 150 basis points year over year, reflecting stronger inventory forecasting and in-stock execution

    80% confidence
  • Since 2000, our top stock-picking strategies have blown away the S&P's +7.7% average gain per year with average gains of +48.4%, +50.2% and +56.7% per year

    80% confidence
  • Meaningful productivity gains from pre-scan technology improved checkout speed in warehouses

    80% confidence
  • Both Target and Costco currently carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold)

    80% confidence
  • The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Costco's current fiscal-year sales and EPS suggests year-over-year increases of 7.5% and 11.7%, respectively

    80% confidence
  • The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Target's current fiscal-year sales and EPS implies year-over-year declines of 1.6% and 17.7%, respectively

    80% confidence
  • Digital initiatives are helping the company better monetize its product mix, particularly in non-food and big-ticket categories, while still enhancing and not replacing the in-store shopping experience

    80% confidence
  • Target plans to increase capital expenditure 25% to $5 billion in fiscal 2026 to support store remodels, larger-format locations, expanded fulfillment and major floor-pad upgrades

    80% confidence
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The Agentic Takeover of the CFO's Office
Enterprise finance software vendors—BlackLine, OneStream, Numero AI, and Oracle—are racing to embed autonomous AI agents into core financial operations (close, consolidation, reporting), backed by consolidation M&A (Numero-Royu, BlackLine-WiseLayer), fresh leadership hires, and survey data showing nearly a quarter of CFOs plan to boost AI spending over 50%. Adoption momentum is strong even as at least one bellwether (Oracle) sees its stock lag year-to-date, suggesting the market hasn't yet fully priced in the shift from AI-as-feature to AI-as-agent in finance.
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Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC
Two significantly different EPS values (10.21 vs 2.68 USD_per_share) are reported for Morgan Stanley on the same observation date (2025-12-31). Fact A specifies FY 2025, while Fact B's 'N/A' fiscal period is ambiguous. If both represent FY 2025 annual EPS, these values directly conflict. The magnitude of the difference (3.8x) is too large to attribute to rounding or minor calculation variations. The missing fiscal period in Fact B raises data quality concerns, but same-date observation + same attribute should reference the same period.
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