BJ's Issues Disappointing Outlook
(BJ's Wholesale earnings article updated with analyst commentary.)
NEW YORK (
) --
BJ's Wholesale
(BJ) - Get Report
issued a 2010 forecast that missed Wall Street's outlook after posting fourth-quarter earnings that were a penny shy of consensus.
During the fourth quarter, BJ's earned $55.1 million or $1.01 a share, a 5% increase from $52.7 million, or 91 cents, in the year-ago period.
Excluding legal charges, BJ's actually earned 95 cents a share, a penny shy of Wall Street's forecast.
BJ's sales grew 9% to $2.8 billion, while same-store sales jumped 4.6%.
Looking ahead, BJ's forecasts full-year earnings in the range of $2.54 to $2.64 a share, below Wall Street's outlook of $2.71 a share. For the first quarter, earnings are expected to fall between 40 cents and 45 cents a share. Analysts are calling for earnings of 44 cent.
Wall Street Strategies analyst Brian Sozzi says weakness in discretionary purchases and increased gasoline sales penetration during the holiday season, coupled with high exposure to East Coast storm activity, weighed on BJ's first-quarter guidance.
In pre-market trading Wednesday morning, shares of BJ's are up 4%, or $1.46, to $36.47.
-- Reported by Jeanine Poggi in New York.
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