Costco Is on Track for Its Worst Performance Relative to the S&P 500 in 23 Years. Is The Blue-Chip Dividend Stock a No-Brainer Buy for 2026?

Investors are souring on Costco as concerns about consumer spending mount.This has been another great year for the broader stock market, with the S&P 500 up 14% year-to-date (YTD). Costco Wholesale (COST +0.59%) shareholders are used to doing even better than the index, with the stock having trounced the S&P 500 over the last five, 10, and 20 years.But this year is different. At the time of this writing, Costco shares are down 3.3% year to date. You'd have to go all the way back to 2002 to find a year in wh ...