BJ’s Wholesale Club (NYSE:BJ) Stock Price Down 4.4% Following Insider Selling

BJ’s Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BJ)’s stock price dropped 4.4% during mid-day trading on Thursday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $71.86 and last traded at $71.97. Approximately 1,586,578 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 12% from the average daily volume of 1,418,848 shares. The stock had previously closed at $75.28.

Specifically, CEO Robert W. Eddy sold 11,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.70, for a total value of $843,700.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 500,792 shares in the company, valued at $38,410,746.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other BJ’s Wholesale Club news, CEO Robert W. Eddy sold 11,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.70, for a total value of $843,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 500,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,410,746.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Joseph Mcgrail sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.37, for a total transaction of $77,370.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $998,459.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 98,840 shares of company stock worth $7,408,605 in the last three months. Company insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on BJ shares. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $70.00 price target (down previously from $73.00) on shares of BJ’s Wholesale Club in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of BJ’s Wholesale Club from $79.00 to $78.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Loop Capital reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $80.00 target price (down previously from $85.00) on shares of BJ’s Wholesale Club in a research note on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of BJ’s Wholesale Club from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $81.00 to $87.00 in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Gordon Haskett lowered shares of BJ’s Wholesale Club from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $70.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $74.40.

BJ’s Wholesale Club Stock Down 4.5 %

The firm has a market cap of $9.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.45, a P/E/G ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 0.26. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $73.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $69.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.14.

BJ’s Wholesale Club (NYSE:BJ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The company reported $1.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.05. BJ’s Wholesale Club had a net margin of 2.64% and a return on equity of 40.84%. The company had revenue of $5.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.38 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.00 EPS. BJ’s Wholesale Club’s revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that BJ’s Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc. will post 3.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BJ’s Wholesale Club

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in BJ’s Wholesale Club by 39.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 16,013,702 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,142,898,000 after acquiring an additional 4,548,963 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in BJ’s Wholesale Club by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 12,142,318 shares of the company’s stock worth $923,666,000 after buying an additional 139,425 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in BJ’s Wholesale Club by 13.0% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,136,282 shares of the company’s stock worth $342,385,000 after buying an additional 590,113 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in BJ’s Wholesale Club by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,445,807 shares of the company’s stock worth $300,581,000 after buying an additional 147,014 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in BJ’s Wholesale Club by 10.3% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,940,441 shares of the company’s stock worth $281,229,000 after buying an additional 369,317 shares during the period. 98.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BJ’s Wholesale Club Company Profile

BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates warehouse clubs on the eastern half of the United States. It provides groceries, general merchandise, gasoline and other ancillary services, coupon books, and promotions. The company sells its products through the websites BJs.com, BerkleyJensen.com, and Wellsleyfarms.com, as well as the mobile app.