Barclays Raises BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Price Target to $37.00

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) had its price target hoisted by analysts at Barclays from $33.00 to $37.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “underweight” rating on the restaurant operator’s stock. Barclays‘s price objective suggests a potential downside of 7.59% from the stock’s current price.

BJRI has been the topic of several other research reports. Wall Street Zen raised shares of BJ’s Restaurants from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $33.00 price target on shares of BJ’s Restaurants and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.00.

BJ’s Restaurants Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BJRI opened at $40.04 on Thursday. BJ’s Restaurants has a one year low of $27.61 and a one year high of $47.02. The firm has a market cap of $885.68 million, a PE ratio of 42.60, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.56. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $43.73 and a 200 day moving average of $37.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 0.39.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.20. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 1.64% and a return on equity of 10.35%. The business had revenue of $347.97 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $347.70 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.32 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at BJ’s Restaurants

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BJ’s Restaurants

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in BJ’s Restaurants in the 1st quarter valued at $69,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the 1st quarter worth $97,000. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 51.8% during the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 2,887 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $99,000 after buying an additional 985 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the 4th quarter worth $108,000. Finally, Two Sigma Securities LLC acquired a new position in BJ’s Restaurants in the 4th quarter valued at about $201,000. 99.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About BJ’s Restaurants

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.