NEW YORK (TheStreet) --Shares of Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) - Get Report are higher by 2.13% to $150.30 in pre-market trading on Thursday morning, after the membership warehouse retailer posted its fiscal 2015 second quarter earnings results, which beat analysts' expectations for the period and increased year-over-year.

For the most recent quarter Costco said its net income was $598 million, or $1.35 per diluted share compared to the $1.18 per share analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting.

For the year ago second quarter Costco reported earnings of $1.05 per share.

Net sales for the quarter grew 4% to $26.87 billion versus the $27.65 billion analysts had predicted.

For the fiscal 2014 second quarter Costco said its net sales were $25.76 billion.

Costco's total comparable sales for the 12 weeks ended February 2015 grew by 2% with a 4% rise in the U.S. and a 2% decline internationally.

"Costco delivered one of its strongest quarters in recent memory," a Sterne Agee analyst told Market Watch.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates COSTCO WHOLESALE CORP as a Buy with a ratings score of A. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate COSTCO WHOLESALE CORP (COST) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, growth in earnings per share, increase in net income, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and solid stock price performance. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows low profit margins."

You can view the full analysis from the report here: COST Ratings Report

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