BJ’s Wholesale is up 10% on Thursday: this is why

BJ’s Wholesale Club Holdings Inc (NYSE: BJ) is up more than 10% in the stock market on Thursday after the retailer reported better-than-expected results for its fiscal first quarter.

BJ’s Q1 earnings snapshot

• Net income printed at $112.5 million versus the year-ago figure of $81.6 million.
• Per-share earnings of 82 cents were much better than 59 cents in Q1 of previous year.
• Adjusted for one-time items, EPS stood at 87 cents in the recent financial quarter.
• Revenue jumped 16.2% YoY to $4.50 billion, as per the earnings press release.
• FactSet consensus was for 72 cents of adjusted EPS on $4.24 billion in revenue.
• Total comparable sales excluding gasoline were up 4.1% versus 3.9% expected.

Other notable figures include an 18% year-over-year increase in cost of sales that contracted the gross margin from 18.8% to 17.6% in the fiscal first quarter. BJ’s reached 6.5 million members in Q1.

Future outlook and CEO’s remarks

The membership-based warehouse retailer also reiterated on Thursday that it expects EPS in 2022 to remain roughly unchanged from last year. In the earnings press release, CEO Bob Eddy said:

Earlier this year, BJ’s bought four perishable goods distribution centres that, it says, will drive future growth and create long-term shareholder value. The stock is still down 10% for the year.