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WESTBOROUGH, Mass. — Strong sales and margin growth at BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc. propelled net income above both management’s and analysts’ expectations in the second quarter of fiscal 2011.
Strong sales and margin growth at BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc. propelled net income above both management’s and analysts’ expectations in the second quarter of fiscal 2011.
Net earnings grew 27.8% to $45.7 million, or 84 cents per diluted share, as sales increased 11% to $2.98 billion. Management had predicted earnings between $40.5 billion, or 74 cents per share, and $42.5 billion, or 78 cents per share. Analysts on average had been looking for 77 cents per share.
Excluding the impact of gasoline sales, comparable-club merchandise sales improved 3.8%. Including the contribution of gasoline, comp-club sales expanded 7.8%. Excluding gas, customer traffic was approximately flat, but the average transaction grew about 3% in the quarter. Food sales rose about 5%, driven by an 8% jump in sales of perishables. General merchandise, on the other hand, edged up just 1%.
"BJ’s outperformance of 10% versus our guidance reflected favorable merchandise margins, higher gas profitability and expense savings that exceeded plan," said Laura Sen, president and chief executive officer, in a statement. "We are very excited about our positive sales momentum for the second quarter and first half of 2011. It is clear that our members are doing more of their weekly food shopping with us, and I believe that we have tremendous opportunities to further grow our business."
