BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Raised to Buy at Benchmark

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) was upgraded by Benchmark from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has a $44.00 price target on the restaurant operator’s stock. Benchmark’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 27.76% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of BJ’s Restaurants from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. 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. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their target price on BJ’s Restaurants from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.67.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of BJ’s Restaurants stock opened at $34.44 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 0.04. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $42.41 and a 200-day moving average of $38.14. BJ’s Restaurants has a 52-week low of $27.61 and a 52-week high of $47.02. The stock has a market cap of $761.81 million, a PE ratio of 28.94, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.59.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The restaurant operator reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.28. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 1.99% and a return on equity of 11.73%. The firm had revenue of $365.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $362.74 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.72 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.5 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Greg Trojan sold 146,102 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.63, for a total value of $6,520,532.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 19,896 shares in the company, valued at approximately $887,958.48. This represents a 88.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 3,738 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.32, for a total value of $165,668.16. Following the sale, the insider owned 4,579 shares in the company, valued at $202,941.28. This represents a 44.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 4.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nomura Holdings Inc. lifted its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 103.2% during the 1st quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 1,700,780 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $58,269,000 after buying an additional 863,749 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 147.9% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 259,977 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $9,134,000 after acquiring an additional 155,109 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants in the fourth quarter worth approximately $4,502,000. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. boosted its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 60.3% in the fourth quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 277,874 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $9,763,000 after acquiring an additional 104,490 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cramer Rosenthal Mcglynn LLC boosted its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 28.4% in the fourth quarter. Cramer Rosenthal Mcglynn LLC now owns 416,709 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $14,641,000 after acquiring an additional 92,285 shares during the last quarter. 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 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.