Swiss National Bank Sells 1,500 Shares of BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. $BJRI

Swiss National Bank cut its position in BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) by 3.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 37,600 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 1,500 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank owned approximately 0.17% of BJ’s Restaurants worth $1,288,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of BJRI. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the first quarter worth about $97,000. US Bancorp DE grew 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 worth $99,000 after acquiring an additional 985 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 369 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the fourth quarter worth about $201,000. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the fourth quarter worth about $203,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on BJRI shares. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $33.00 price target on BJ’s Restaurants and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Piper Sandler upped their target price on BJ’s Restaurants from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Benchmark upgraded BJ’s Restaurants from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $44.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Wall Street Zen upgraded BJ’s Restaurants from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 16th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price 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. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.67.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Down 4.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:BJRI opened at $33.65 on Tuesday. BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. has a 12-month low of $27.89 and a 12-month high of $47.02. The company has a market capitalization of $744.34 million, a PE ratio of 28.28, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.59. The business has a 50 day moving average of $39.70 and a two-hundred day moving average of $38.01. 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 (NASDAQ:BJRI) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 11.73% and a net margin of 1.99%.The company had revenue of $365.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $362.74 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share. BJ’s Restaurants’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.5 EPS for the current year.

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.