BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) has earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the nine ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have given a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $38.30.

BJRI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Benchmark increased their price target on BJ’s Restaurants from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research report on Wednesday. TheStreet raised shares of BJ’s Restaurants from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $37.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 5th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Performance

BJRI opened at $34.68 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $34.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.66. BJ’s Restaurants has a 1 year low of $21.64 and a 1 year high of $38.76. The stock has a market cap of $810.82 million, a P/E ratio of 41.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 2.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 0.42 and a quick ratio of 0.35.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The restaurant operator reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.17. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 1.47% and a return on equity of 5.45%. The business had revenue of $337.33 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $335.35 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.15 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BJ’s Restaurants news, VP Alex Puchner sold 7,713 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.25, for a total value of $295,022.25. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 12,222 shares in the company, valued at approximately $467,491.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, major shareholder Fund 1 Investments, Llc sold 242,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.53, for a total transaction of $8,598,260.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 2,326,476 shares in the company, valued at $82,659,692.28. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Alex Puchner sold 7,713 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.25, for a total transaction of $295,022.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 12,222 shares in the company, valued at $467,491.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of BJ’s Restaurants

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quadrant Capital Group LLC lifted its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 141.0% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,270 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 743 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants in the third quarter valued at $42,000. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants in the 4th quarter valued at $95,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the 3rd quarter worth $67,000. Finally, C M Bidwell & Associates Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the 3rd quarter worth $95,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

BJ’s Restaurants Company Profile

BJ's Restaurants, Inc owns and operates casual dining restaurants in the United States. Its restaurants offer pizzas, craft and other beers, appetizers, entrées, pastas, sandwiches, specialty salads, and desserts. The company was formerly known as Chicago Pizza & Brewery, Inc and changed its name to BJ's Restaurants, Inc in August 2004.