The latest special dividend in the company’s published history remains $15 per share, paid on 12 January 2024. No date or amount for a subsequent special has been announced in the company materials checked for this update on 25 October 2026. A large cash balance can make another distribution possible, but it cannot supply a payment date that the board has not declared.

The useful question is what Costco can distribute while funding the warehouses and operations that generate the cash. Its newly filed annual report makes that question more concrete. It also exposes a weakness in forecasts based on an “every few years” rhythm: past specials have used different financing choices, rather than one repeatable cash threshold.

The latest special was announced in 2023 and paid in 2024

Costco announced the $15 special on 14 December 2023, with a 28 December record date and a 12 January 2024 payment date. The aggregate payment was approximately $6.7 billion. Calling this the “2023 special” or “2024 special” can describe the same distribution, depending on which date a writer uses.

Use payment dates consistently when comparing the previous specials:

Those intervals vary considerably. Averaging them can describe the past; it cannot identify the next board decision. The amount also fell from $7 to $5 before rising again, so an ever-larger next payment is not a rule established by the record.

More cash has accumulated after regular shareholder payments

At the end of fiscal 2026, Costco held $20.207 billion in cash and cash equivalents, plus $1.094 billion of short-term investments. Cash alone had risen by $6.046 billion over the year, even after $2.458 billion of cash dividends and $848 million of share repurchases. Costco’s year-end statements show the balances and payments.

The accumulation after ordinary payouts is a credible reason for renewed interest in a special. Merchandise purchases, payroll, rewards and expansion also need that liquidity as the business operates.

What another $15 special would cost

The year-end balance sheet in the 2026 Form 10-K records 443.266 million common shares outstanding on 30 August 2026. Holding that share count constant gives a simple way to assess the scale of a hypothetical payout:

443.266 million shares × $15 = $6.64899 billion, or about $6.65 billion. This is our calculation using the fiscal year-end share count. The actual cost of any future declaration would depend on the shares entitled to that dividend.

For comparison, the same calculation gives about $4.43 billion for $10 per share and $8.87 billion for $20. These are illustrative amounts, not announced payments or estimates of what the board will choose. The $15 example would consume roughly one-third of year-end cash and cash equivalents before considering later cash movements.

That arithmetic helps explain both sides of the argument. Costco could fund a sizeable distribution from the reported balance, but the whole balance is not surplus earmarked for shareholders. The timing of merchandise payments, ordinary dividends and warehouse spending still matters. Comparing a possible payout with cash answers a question about scale; it does not establish how much liquidity management is willing to release.

Warehouse investment and supplier timing shape that capacity

The audited 2026 Form 10-K reports $15.817 billion of operating cash flow and $6.435 billion of cash capital expenditure: $9.382 billion remained after that investment. The company plans roughly $7.5 billion of capital spending in fiscal 2027. That is a larger claim on future cash than the investment just completed.

Cash generation also benefited from faster inventory turnover and better supplier terms. In the cash-flow statement, the inventory outflow of $1.153 billion and payables inflow of $2.755 billion together added $1.602 billion. This is part of a working retail system, not a separate recurring profit stream. Suppliers still need paying as goods move through it.

A special has not always been funded solely from cash

Costco’s 2015 announcement explicitly said the $5 payout would use existing cash and additional borrowings. The 2017 declaration said its $7 special would be funded primarily through additional borrowings. By contrast, the 2020 $10 declaration specified existing cash.

The earlier borrowing makes credit access and financing cost part of the historical allocation choice. The later cash-funded payment shows a different route. A forecast based solely on the size of the cash balance overlooks that discretion.

Keep the regular dividend and total return separate

The ordinary quarterly dividend is $1.47 per share, following the April 2026 increase. Four payments at that rate would be $5.88 annually. That forward annualized rate is different from the $5.54 declared across fiscal 2026, when the quarterly rate changed; neither includes a hypothetical new special.

A declared special transfers cash from the company to shareholders. It is not a return that can simply be added to an unchanged share price: Investor.gov explains that the price may fall by the dividend amount on the ex-dividend date. Market movements can change the actual adjustment.

A future declaration should be read for its amount, record date, payment date and funding terms. For a shareholder assessing a potential special today, the useful evidence is Costco’s ability to keep generating cash after its larger investment programme, rather than an assumed year-end deadline.