We discussed in November BJ's Wholesale Club in this column when the stock was trading ~$87. The observation we made at the time was that, although the regional wholesale operator larger and better-known national competitor, Costco , was growing faster — it was also trading at roughly double the forward valuation. At the time, BJ's was trading at ~25 times forward estimated earnings, half the 50 times forward estimated earnings that Costco commanded, and proposed a bullish trade in the name. That was eell-timed as it turned out. BJ's proceeded to rally nearly 40% in the next five months, outperforming Costco by more than 30% over the same time frame and outpacing the S & P 500 , which actually declined in large part due to the "liberation day" tariff tantrum. Since topping out just shy of

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