North Face Owner’s Cold Winter

Today’s action shows that BJ’s may have a branding problem in the retail investing community. Despite the company’s results topping expectations today, sentiment readings from are community are still weaker than you’d expect. 🤔 

BJ’s Wholesale Club revenues grew 8.70% YoY to $5.357 billion, with adjusted earnings of $1.11 per share. While earnings topped expectations, revenue was slightly below, with executives citing an uncertain macroeconomic environment as the primary driver.

Video game software developer Unity probably wishes it could reload its last saved checkpoint after reporting another quarter of lackluster earnings. 👾

Although revenues of $609 million topped expectations of $451 million, management noted revenue would have been $510 million if its deferred revenues were not released. Meanwhile, the company’s net loss of $0.66 was narrower than last year’s $0.82 but still much higher than analysts’ $0.46 per share expectation. 🔺

One of the core themes we’ve been discussing for a long time is the “ad-ification” of everything. No matter where you go or what you do, you’re likely being targeted by some form of advertising. And the reason why is because it’s such a high-margin, profitable business opportunity. 🎯

As a result, it’s no surprise to see America’s largest employer and big-box retailer, Walmart, leaning heavily into that narrative during its earnings call. 

As we’ve discussed, speculation continues to spread to all corners of the market. Even those areas that have been left for dead for quite some time. Today’s example of this is Jumia Technologies, the “Amazon of Africa” that caught wildfire early in its life before the gravity of reality brought it back down to earth. 🛒

The company reported reducing its losses by over 90% in the fourth quarter as it focused on restoring order and gross merchandise value (GMV) growth. Like other struggling companies, it cut costs significantly and leveraged lower tax provisions to help drive the earnings improvement.