Rising gas prices have sent Costco Wholesale Corp.’s earnings down and its shares lower in Friday trading.

In early trading, Costco’s shares were down 9 percent after it said that weak profits from gasoline sales will likely put its earnings for the rest of the fiscal year lower than Wall Street’s expectations.

Costco, the largest warehouse club operation in the United States, has gasoline filling stations at many of its 334 U.S. stores, where it often charges less than traditional filling stations in order to bring customers into its stores.

But this new report says that current quarter profits will be between 41 cents and 43 cents per share. This is below Wall Street’s estimate of 46 cents per share.

Likewise, Costco’s estimates of next quarter’s earnings per share to fall between 63 cents and 67 cents, again below the Wall Street estimate of 70 cents per share.

One of Costco’s rivals, BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc., also offers gasoline sales at many of its stores, and its stocks felt a similar decline early Friday as its shares dropped 6 percent.