Brokerages Set BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) PT at $38.63

Shares of BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seven brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have issued a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $38.63.

A number of research firms have weighed in on BJRI. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $43.00 target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Benchmark cut shares of BJ’s Restaurants from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on BJ’s Restaurants from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 26th.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of BJRI stock opened at $28.39 on Friday. BJ’s Restaurants has a twelve month low of $21.64 and a twelve month high of $38.87. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $32.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $663.76 million, a P/E ratio of 28.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 2.12.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The restaurant operator reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.21. BJ’s Restaurants had a return on equity of 7.83% and a net margin of 2.19%. The company had revenue of $349.93 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $349.18 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.50 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at BJ’s Restaurants

In other BJ’s Restaurants news, CEO C Bradford Richmond bought 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The shares were bought at an average price of $29.40 per share, for a total transaction of $73,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 16,905 shares in the company, valued at $497,007. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 4.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 27.5% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 529,116 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $18,360,000 after purchasing an additional 114,008 shares in the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC increased its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 298.7% in the 4th quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 141,556 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $5,097,000 after buying an additional 106,054 shares in the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in BJ’s Restaurants during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,250,000. Armistice Capital LLC bought a new position in BJ’s Restaurants in the second quarter worth approximately $2,602,000. Finally, GW&K Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,199,000. 99.95% of the stock is owned by 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. The company was formerly known as Chicago Pizza & Brewery, Inc and changed its name to BJ's Restaurants, Inc in August 2004.