The valuation can normalize by the stock price going down or by profits going up. Which will it be? Warehouse-style retail chain Costco Wholesale (COST 0.35%) is a stock that investors are willing to pay up for right now. Any stock's valuation -- how expensive or cheap it is -- can be measured relative to the size of its business. And Costco's is objectively high. One way to value a stock is by the profits from the business. This is called the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. Among the hundreds of companies i ...