By Tomi Kilgore
Costco’s membership-based retail rival sees biggest growth for comparable-club sales in nearly two years
Shares of BJ’s Wholesale Club Holdings Inc. were headed higher in early trading Thursday after the membership-based warehouse retailer pleased investors by doing what many others have not done: provide a full-year outlook that was mostly in line with Wall Street’s expectations.
The company also beat expectations for all three key earnings metrics for its fourth quarter, including posting the fastest growth for comparable-club sales in nearly two years.
The results were boosted by a 12th straight quarter of traffic growth, a big jump in sales through digital channels and record-high membership.
The stock (BJ) rose 1.1% in premarket trading. It was a rare gainer amid a broad market selloff.
For the fourth quarter, ending Feb. 1, comparable-club sales, or sales at locations open at least 13 months, climbed 4.6% from a year ago, the biggest increase since the quarter ending April 2023. That beat the average analyst estimate compiled by FactSet, which was for 3.1% growth.
Digitally enabled comparable-club sales surged 26%, following 30% growth in the sequentially previous quarter and a 28% increase over last year’s fourth quarter.
For the full fiscal year ending January 2026, the company expects comparable-club sales to increase 2% to 3.5%, while analysts were modeling a 2.9% rise.
And the company projects full-year adjusted earnings per share of $4.10 to $4.30, which surrounds the current FactSet consensus of $4.28.
One of the prevailing themes of the latest earnings-reporting season for consumer-facing companies has been to post fourth-quarter results that beat analysts’ consensus estimates but provide downbeat outlooks, as fellow discount retailers Walmart Inc. (WMT) and Target Corp. (TGT) have done.
For the fourth quarter, net income at BJ’s declined to $122.7 million, or 92 cents a share, from $145.9 million, or $1.08 a share, a year ago.
Adjusted earnings per share, which excludes nonrecurring items, fell to 93 cents from $1.11 a year ago, but that was above the FactSet consensus of 88 cents.
And total revenue was down 1.5% to $5.28 billion, just above the analyst consensus forecast of $5.27 billion.
“Our terrific fourth-quarter performance contributed to a record year at BJ’s, powered by all-time high membership results,” said Bob Eddy, BJ’s chief executive. “Our improved assortment, investments in value and significant growth in digital sales drove our 12th consecutive quarter of traffic growth.”
BJ’s stock has gained 4.7% over the past three months through Wednesday, while shares of rival Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) have tacked on 5.6% and the S&P 500 index SPX has dropped 4.1%.
-Tomi Kilgore
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03-06-25 0752ET
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