BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. $BJRI Shares Sold by Maryland State Retirement & Pension System

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lowered its stake in BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) by 14.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,658 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 1,161 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in BJ’s Restaurants were worth $228,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the 1st quarter worth about $97,000. US Bancorp DE increased its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 51.8% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 2,887 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $99,000 after acquiring an additional 985 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC raised its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 12.0% during the first quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 3,438 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $118,000 after purchasing an additional 369 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Securities LLC acquired a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants in the fourth quarter worth approximately $201,000. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC bought a new position in BJ’s Restaurants during the 4th quarter valued at $203,000. Institutional investors own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Barclays lifted their price target on BJ’s Restaurants from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $33.00 target price on BJ’s Restaurants and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of BJ’s Restaurants from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Benchmark upgraded shares of BJ’s Restaurants from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $44.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, August 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.67.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of NASDAQ BJRI opened at $35.40 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. has a one year low of $27.89 and a one year high of $47.02. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $40.46 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $783.05 million, a PE ratio of 29.75, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.59.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BJ’s Restaurants news, SVP Heidi Rogers sold 4,116 shares of BJ’s Restaurants stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.36, for a total transaction of $145,541.76. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 7,144 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $252,611.84. This trade represents a 36.55% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Jacob Guild sold 9,521 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.51, for a total transaction of $338,090.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 3,803 shares in the company, valued at $135,044.53. This trade represents a 71.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.90% of the stock is 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.