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MARLBOROUGH, Mass. —BJ’s Wholesale Club reported strong third quarter results driven by membership growth and traffic and margin improvement.
Comparable-club sales, excluding gasoline sales, remained approximately flat year over year. But the company said its digitally enabled comparable sales growth was up 16% year over year. And membership fee income increased by 6.6% year over year to $106.1 million. Net sales for the 13-week period ended October 28 were about $4.82 billion, up nearly 2.8% over last year’s third quarter. Net income came in at about $130.5 million, up from $129.9 million in the prior-year period.
“Our advantaged model and strong value proposition continue to resonate with our members,” BJ’s chairman and chief executive officer Bob Eddy said. “During the third quarter, we posted accelerating membership growth, robust traffic gains and continued increases in market share. These gains continue to reinforce the underlying strength of our business, and we remain confident in the long-term growth prospects of our company.”
For the fiscal year ending February 3, BJ’s is now projecting that comparable-club sales, excluding the impact of gasoline sales, will increase by 1% to 1.8% year over year. That’s down from its previous forecast of an increase of about 2%. Adjusted earnings guidance of $3.80 to $3.92 a share remained the same. For the fourth quarter, the company expects comparable-club sales to range from a 2% decrease to a 1% increase from a year earlier.
“As we look ahead to the rest of the year, we remain confident in our ability to maintain the momentum in our traffic and market share gains due to our unrelenting focus on value,” BJ’s chief financial officer Laura Felice said of the updated forecast. “We also continue to navigate shifts in consumer behavior driven by the broader macroeconomic environment.”
