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BJ's Wholesale Club (BJ) Marching Ahead of Industry: Here's Why

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BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc. (BJ - Free Report) has been one of the top-notch performers amid the pandemic, courtesy of its sound fundamentals and growth efforts that reinforce its position in the ultra-competitive environment. Sturdy membership trends, assortment initiatives, enhanced digital capabilities and robust real estate pipeline have been aiding to sustain decent performance.

Shares of this operator of warehouse clubs have climbed 9.8% in the past six months against the industry’s decline of 13.1%. There is a likelihood that this Westborough, MA-based company with a long-term earnings growth rate of 7.9% can attain new highs.

Let’s Delve Deep

BJ's Wholesale’s focus on simplifying assortments, boosting marketing and merchandising capabilities, expanding into high-demand categories as well as building own-brands portfolio bodes well. The company remains committed to enhancing omni-channel capabilities and providing value to customers. These endeavors have been contributing to growth in membership signups and renewals, resulting in rising membership fee income, higher average members per club and decent comparable club sales growth.

While membership fee income jumped 9.5% to $94.3 million, member count has grown by 3% versus last year during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021. Total comparable club sales during the quarter under review rose 8.8%, reflecting two-year stacked comp sales of 21.8%.

The Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company has been directing resources toward expanding digital capabilities in order to better engage with members and provide them a convenient way to shop, including same-day delivery, curbside pick-up and buy-online, pickup-in-club (BOPIC). Management believes that digitally engaged members have higher average baskets and make more trips per year than members who shop in-club only.

The company has built a strong digital portfolio with Bjs.com, BerkleyJensen.com, Wellsleyfarms.com, delivery.bjs.com and the BJ’s mobile app. This enables members to buy, review products and digitally add coupons to their membership cards. The company has launched curbside pickup and expanded BOPIC service for fresh and frozen grocery items at all its locations. We note that digitally-enabled sales rose 19% during the fourth quarter. On a two-year stacked basis, digitally-enabled sales soared 187%.

BJ's Wholesale accepts EBT payments for SNAP-eligible items on BJs.com for in-club pickup as well as contactless curbside pickup orders. The company has launched ExpressPay across the chain that allows members to skip the checkout line by scanning their cart and paying for their purchase through the BJ's app. It has signed a partnership agreement with DoorDash that is likely to enhance delivery capabilities.

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Wrapping Up

BJ's Wholesale is leaving no stone unturned to improve top-line performance and expand its customer base, be it through better pricing, private label offerings, merchandise initiatives or digital solutions. Recently, the company entered into an accord to acquire the assets and operations of four refrigerated distribution centers as well as a related private transportation fleet from Burris Logistics. The deal will facilitate BJ's Wholesale to insource its perishable supply chain and support future growth. Markedly, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for current financial year sales indicates an improvement of 6.8% from the year-ago period.

3 Other Stocks to Consider

Here we highlight three better-ranked stocks, namely, Target (TGT - Free Report) , Tractor Supply Company (TSCO - Free Report) and Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM - Free Report) .

Target, a general merchandise retailer, sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). The company has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 21.3%, on average. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Target’s current financial year sales and EPS suggests growth of 3.5% and 6.7%, respectively, from the year-ago period. TGT has an expected EPS growth rate of 16.5% for three-five years.

Tractor Supply Company, a rural lifestyle retailer in the United States, carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. TSCO has an expected EPS growth rate of 9.8% for three-five years.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Tractor Supply Company’s current financial-year sales and EPS suggests growth of 8.2% and 7.1%, respectively, from the corresponding year-ago period’s actuals. TSCO has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 22%, on average.

Sprouts Farmers offering fresh, natural and organic food products currently carries a Zacks Rank of 2. SFM has an expected EPS growth rate of 7.3% for three-five years.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Sprouts Farmers’ current financial-year sales and EPS suggests growth of 4.7% and 4.8%, respectively, from the corresponding year-ago period’s readings. SFM has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 17.9%, on average.

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