A Preview Of BJ's Wholesale Club's Earnings

BJ's Wholesale Club BJ releases its next round of earnings this Thursday, May 20. Get the latest predictions in Benzinga's essential guide to the company's Q1 earnings report.

Net Income, Earnings, And Earnings Per Share

Earnings and EPS are useful metrics of profitability. Total earnings also known as net income is equal to total revenue minus total expenses. Dividing net income by the total number of shares outstanding yields EPS.

Earnings And Revenue

BJ's Wholesale Club earnings will be near $0.57 per share on sales of $3.62 billion, according to analysts. BJ's Wholesale Club reported a per-share profit of $0.69 when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $3.80 billion.

What Are Analyst Estimates And Earnings Surprises, And Why Do They Matter?

Analysts who cover this company will publish forward-looking estimates of its revenue and EPS each quarter. Averaging together every EPS and revenue prediction that each analyst makes about a company in a quarter yields the "consensus estimates." A company posting earnings or revenue above or below the consensus estimate is known as an "earnings surprise" and may move the stock by a considerable margin.

If the company were to match the consensus estimate when it reports Thursday, earnings would be down 17.39%. Sales would be down 4.69% from the same quarter last year. Here is how the company's EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Shares of BJ's Wholesale Club were trading at $48.77 as of May 18. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 38.04%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders can be satisfied going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. BJ's Wholesale Club is scheduled to hold the call at 08:30:00 ET and can be accessed here.