BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Sets New 12-Month High Following Strong Earnings

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high on Friday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The company traded as high as $41.72 and last traded at $38.46, with a volume of 70230 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $35.74.

The restaurant operator reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.12. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 2.24% and a return on equity of 7.98%. The company had revenue of $344.34 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $336.48 million.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BJRI has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Gordon Haskett upgraded shares of BJ’s Restaurants from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $36.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Oppenheimer downgraded BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wedbush increased their price target on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on BJ’s Restaurants from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on BJ’s Restaurants from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, BJ’s Restaurants currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $40.40.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 18.9% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 36,076 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,268,000 after buying an additional 5,722 shares during the last quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,050,000. ProShare Advisors LLC purchased a new position in BJ’s Restaurants during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $203,000. Nomura Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 23.9% in the 4th quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 837,031 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $29,409,000 after purchasing an additional 161,495 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 45.4% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 243,267 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $8,547,000 after buying an additional 75,936 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Up 6.4 %

The company has a market cap of $867.71 million, a PE ratio of 30.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 2.11. The company has a 50-day moving average of $35.53 and a 200 day moving average of $34.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.35 and a quick ratio of 0.28.

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.