Costco Wholesale has declared a special cash dividend of $30 per share, representing an expected payment of approximately $13.3 billion to shareholders. The US membership warehouse retailer announced the decision on 10 November 2026 alongside a renewed $4 billion share repurchase programme.

The special dividend is due to be paid on 4 December 2026 to shareholders of record at the close of business on 24 November. It is separate from Costco’s regular quarterly dividend, and investors should not treat the one-off amount as a new quarterly payout.

How much is Costco’s special dividend in 2026? The payment is $30 for each eligible common share, with an estimated aggregate value of $13.3 billion. The declared record date is 24 November and the payment date is 4 December.

Costco also said its board had reauthorised the repurchase of up to $4 billion of common stock. The new authorisation expires in November 2030 and replaces the programme approved in 2023, which was due to expire in January 2027.

Under the previous $4 billion authorisation, Costco had already repurchased $3.1 billion of stock. The replacement does not mean an additional $4 billion will necessarily be spent immediately. Repurchases are authorised, not guaranteed, and the pace depends on management decisions and market conditions.

The announcement underscores the company’s capacity to return cash to investors, but it is not a trading update. It supplies no new comparable-store sales, membership renewal rates or merchandise-margin figures. Those measures remain more directly useful for judging changes in grocery retail demand and competitive performance.

Costco said it operated 945 warehouses at the time of the announcement, including 653 in the US and Puerto Rico, 115 in Canada, 43 in Mexico, 37 in Japan and 29 in the UK. It also had 20 in Korea, 15 in Australia, 14 in Taiwan, seven in China, five in Spain, three in France, two in Sweden, and one each in Iceland and New Zealand.

The company’s international reach places it alongside the largest operators in the US grocery retail market, although the membership warehouse model differs from conventional supermarkets in its product range, pack sizes and customer economics.

For consumer-goods suppliers, the new capital-return announcement does not by itself signal a change in buying strategy. The retailer’s warehouse network, member purchasing patterns and assortment remain the more immediate factors for manufacturers seeking distribution.

Attention now turns to the 24 November record date and 4 December payment, while the replacement repurchase authorisation runs through November 2030.

Editor’s Note: Figures and dates have been checked against Costco Wholesale’s investor announcement of 10 November 2026. This is a shareholder capital-return development, not a newly issued grocery sales forecast.