BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to Hold

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Sunday.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on BJRI. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of BJ’s Restaurants from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.75.

BJ’s Restaurants Price Performance

Shares of BJRI traded up $1.27 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $36.24. 569,678 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 463,200. The stock has a market cap of $801.77 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.45, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.35. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $31.75 and a 200-day moving average of $37.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a current ratio of 0.38. BJ’s Restaurants has a 52 week low of $28.46 and a 52 week high of $47.02.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.04 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.05. BJ’s Restaurants had a return on equity of 11.73% and a net margin of 1.99%.The company had revenue of $330.16 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $335.86 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.13) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BJ’s Restaurants declared that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, October 30th that allows the company to buyback $75.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the restaurant operator to reacquire up to 11.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at BJ’s Restaurants

In other news, CAO Jacob Guild sold 9,521 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.51, for a total transaction of $338,090.71. Following the completion of the sale, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Alex Puchner sold 1,821 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.06, for a total transaction of $62,023.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 10,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $361,785.32. The trade was a 14.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 15,458 shares of company stock worth $545,656 in the last quarter. 4.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BJ’s Restaurants

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 23.5% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,362,763 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $102,665,000 after acquiring an additional 640,648 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 103.2% in the first quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 1,700,780 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $58,269,000 after purchasing an additional 863,749 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 6.6% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 824,597 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $36,777,000 after purchasing an additional 51,062 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 233.6% during the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 628,445 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $28,029,000 after purchasing an additional 440,078 shares during the period. Finally, Emerald Advisers LLC increased its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 593,478 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $26,469,000 after purchasing an additional 15,151 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.