ProShare Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 5,787 BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)

ProShare Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 5,787 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $203,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 23.5% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,902 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants in the 4th quarter valued at about $108,000. Arizona State Retirement System acquired a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants in the 4th quarter valued at about $200,000. Two Sigma Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants in the 4th quarter valued at about $201,000. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC raised its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 1,251.3% in the 4th quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 6,297 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $221,000 after purchasing an additional 5,831 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Down 0.5%

BJ’s Restaurants stock opened at $44.60 on Monday. BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. has a 52 week low of $27.61 and a 52 week high of $45.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a current ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $986.37 million, a P/E ratio of 65.59, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.47. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.01.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.20. BJ’s Restaurants had a return on equity of 8.76% and a net margin of 1.23%. The business had revenue of $347.97 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $347.70 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. BJ’s Restaurants’s quarterly revenue was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on BJRI shares. Wedbush raised their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $33.00 price objective on BJ’s Restaurants and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $37.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BJ’s Restaurants news, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 3,738 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.32, for a total transaction of $165,668.16. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 4,579 shares in the company, valued at $202,941.28. This trade represents a 44.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Greg Trojan sold 146,102 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.63, for a total transaction of $6,520,532.26. Following the sale, the director now owns 19,896 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $887,958.48. This trade represents a 88.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

BJ’s Restaurants 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 under brand name Pizookie. The company was formerly known as Chicago Pizza & Brewery, Inc and changed its name to BJ’s Restaurants, Inc in August 2004.