No. 1 U.S. warehouse club operator Costco Wholesale Corp saw June sales at stores open at least a year rise 4 percent, marginally missing market expectations, as it was hurt by the Memorial Day holiday shift.

The fact that Memorial Day fell in the June reporting period, unlike the previous year, hurt sales by about 2 percent, the company said. This year's five-week period included 33 trading days in the United States versus 34 last year.

Analysts had expected Costco to post a like-for-like sales rise of 4.2 percent, including the impact of fuel, according to Thomson Reuters data.

For the five weeks ended July 4, net sales rose 7 percent to $7.33 billion from the previous year.

Shares of the Issaquah, Washington-based company closed at $54.29 Wednesday on Nasdaq.

Costco operates warehouses in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Korea and Japan, among other countries.

(Reporting by S. John Tilak in Bangalore; Editing by David Holmes)

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