BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Issues Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.17 EPS

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The restaurant operator reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.17, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $337.33 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $335.35 million. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 1.80% and a return on equity of 6.56%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.15 earnings per share.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Up 5.9 %

NASDAQ:BJRI opened at $34.68 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $810.82 million, a P/E ratio of 34.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 2.12. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $34.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.72. BJ’s Restaurants has a fifty-two week low of $21.64 and a fifty-two week high of $38.76.

Insider Activity at BJ’s Restaurants

In other BJ’s Restaurants news, VP Alex Puchner sold 7,713 shares of BJ’s Restaurants stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.25, for a total value of $295,022.25. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 12,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $467,491.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, major shareholder Fund 1 Investments, Llc sold 242,000 shares of BJ’s Restaurants stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.53, for a total value of $8,598,260.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 2,326,476 shares in the company, valued at approximately $82,659,692.28. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Alex Puchner sold 7,713 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.25, for a total transaction of $295,022.25. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 12,222 shares in the company, valued at approximately $467,491.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on BJRI. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research note on Wednesday. TheStreet raised shares of BJ’s Restaurants from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $35.00 price target on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a report on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup raised their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $28.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on BJ’s Restaurants from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.30.

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. The company was formerly known as Chicago Pizza & Brewery, Inc and changed its name to BJ's Restaurants, Inc in August 2004.