Increased membership fees, comparable club sales, and digital sales drove BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings (BJ, Financials) third-quarter results over analyst estimates; the stock is up 9.3% in Thursday's early market trading.

• Warning! GuruFocus has detected 3 Warning Sign with BJ.

The corporation also revealed a $1 billion stock repurchase program and a first membership price rise in seven years.

Driven by more customer visitation, comparable club revenues up 1.5% year-on-year, or 3.8% when excluding fuel purchases. While membership fee revenue rose 8.4% to $115 million, digitally enabled similar sales grew 30%. Strong rates of acquisition and retention as well as increased acceptance of higher-tier memberships helped to explain the increase in membership revenue.

A port strike and storms, which contributed less than one percentage point to comparable sales excluding fuel, reportedly helped BJ's Q3 sales to be momentarily higher.

Operating income grew 15.1%; adjusted profits before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization climbed 13.5%. Comparatively to the same quarter previous year, earnings per share surpassed estimates and showed a healthy rise.

BJ's will increase its Club membership cost by $5 to $60 yearly starting Jan. 1, 2025, and its Club+ membership charge by $10 to $120 yearly.

"As we look ahead, we remain confident in our ability to drive long-term growth and shareholder value," said Laura Felice, Chief Financial Officer.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.