BJ’s Wholesale Club (NYSE:BJ) Trading Down 4.4% After Insider Selling

BJ’s Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BJ) fell 4.4% on Thursday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $71.86 and last traded at $71.97. 1,586,578 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 12% from the average session volume of 1,418,848 shares. The stock had previously closed at $75.28.

Specifically, Director Christopher J. Baldwin sold 73,062 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.95, for a total value of $5,402,934.90. Following the sale, the director now owns 173,294 shares in the company, valued at $12,815,091.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Christopher J. Baldwin sold 73,062 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.95, for a total transaction of $5,402,934.90. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 173,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,815,091.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Monica Schwartz sold 13,578 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.81, for a total transaction of $1,070,082.18. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 13,545 shares in the company, valued at $1,067,481.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 98,840 shares of company stock worth $7,408,605 over the last 90 days. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

BJ’s Wholesale Club Trading Up 1.6 %

The company has a quick ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.06, a PEG ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 0.26. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $73.91 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $69.38.

BJ’s Wholesale Club (NYSE:BJ) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $5.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.38 billion. BJ’s Wholesale Club had a net margin of 2.64% and a return on equity of 40.84%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.00 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that BJ’s Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc. will post 3.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norden Group LLC lifted its stake in BJ’s Wholesale Club by 1,836.9% in the first quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 246,608 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,655,000 after acquiring an additional 233,876 shares during the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System lifted its stake in BJ’s Wholesale Club by 1.9% in the first quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 32,715 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,475,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Financial Strategies Group Inc. purchased a new position in BJ’s Wholesale Club in the first quarter worth approximately $215,000. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE lifted its position in shares of BJ’s Wholesale Club by 19.4% during the 1st quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 172,906 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,080,000 after buying an additional 28,152 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Place Capital Corp lifted its position in shares of BJ’s Wholesale Club by 42.4% during the 1st quarter. Park Place Capital Corp now owns 1,095 shares of the company’s stock worth $83,000 after buying an additional 326 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.60% of the company’s stock.

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.