Morgan Stanley Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for BJ’s Wholesale Club (NYSE:BJ) Stock

BJ’s Wholesale Club (NYSE:BJ) had its target price raised by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from $90.00 to $98.00 in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target suggests a potential upside of 5.95% from the company’s current price.

BJ has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on BJ’s Wholesale Club from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised BJ’s Wholesale Club from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $76.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Bank of America cut their price objective on BJ’s Wholesale Club from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of BJ’s Wholesale Club from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Roth Mkm upped their price target on shares of BJ’s Wholesale Club from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $90.88.

BJ’s Wholesale Club Trading Up 7.9 %

NYSE:BJ opened at $92.50 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $12.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.24. BJ’s Wholesale Club has a twelve month low of $63.73 and a twelve month high of $94.67. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $85.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $85.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

BJ’s Wholesale Club (NYSE:BJ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 22nd. The company reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.09. BJ’s Wholesale Club had a net margin of 2.62% and a return on equity of 36.12%. The business had revenue of $5.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.97 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that BJ’s Wholesale Club will post 3.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Joseph Mcgrail sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.57, for a total value of $83,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 13,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,133,710.62. The trade was a 6.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Robert W. Eddy sold 11,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.40, for a total transaction of $873,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 445,792 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,395,884.80. This represents a 2.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 34,000 shares of company stock worth $2,818,390 over the last three months. Insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Anchor Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of BJ’s Wholesale Club by 47.3% in the 3rd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 2,037 shares of the company’s stock valued at $168,000 after acquiring an additional 654 shares during the last quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC raised its position in BJ’s Wholesale Club by 1.9% in the third quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 18,120 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,495,000 after purchasing an additional 337 shares during the last quarter. Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of BJ’s Wholesale Club during the third quarter valued at about $828,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of BJ’s Wholesale Club by 4.2% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 8,802 shares of the company’s stock worth $727,000 after purchasing an additional 358 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of BJ’s Wholesale Club by 1.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,215,356 shares of the company’s stock valued at $182,770,000 after buying an additional 34,940 shares during the period. 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.