Shares of BJ’s Wholesale Club surged 13 percent yesterday following The Post’s exclusive report that the company is gearing up for a possible sale.

The 14-year-old members-only warehouse retailer has hired Morgan Stanley to explore strategic alternatives including a sale to a private-equity firm that could fetch as much as $3 billion, according to a person close to the situation.

BJ’s hired investment bank Greenhill & Co. in July after Los Angeles-based buyout firm Leonard Green & Partners disclosed a 9.5 percent stake in the retailer. But BJ’s management has since dragged its feet despite pressure from Leonard Green.

Top execs at BJ’s own little of the company’s stock, and “are more worried about their paychecks than they are about shareholder value,” one of the retailer’s investors told The Post.

Shares at the Natick, Mass.-based company gained $5.31 to close at $47.34, just shy of a 52-week high.