Brokerages Set BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) PT at $37.20

Shares of BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Reduce” from the seven ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $37.20.

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on BJRI. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $33.00 price target on shares of BJ’s Restaurants and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Wedbush increased their target price 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, February 21st. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of BJ’s Restaurants stock opened at $42.09 on Wednesday. BJ’s Restaurants has a 12 month low of $27.61 and a 12 month high of $45.22. The company has a quick ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock has a market cap of $930.86 million, a PE ratio of 61.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.47. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $35.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.57.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.20. BJ’s Restaurants had a return on equity of 8.76% and a net margin of 1.23%. The firm had revenue of $347.97 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $347.70 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.32 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BJ’s Restaurants news, Director Greg Trojan sold 146,102 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.63, for a total value of $6,520,532.26. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 19,896 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $887,958.48. The trade was a 88.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 3,738 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.32, for a total value of $165,668.16. Following the sale, the insider now owns 4,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $202,941.28. This trade represents a 44.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. US Bancorp DE boosted its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 23.5% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,902 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares during the period. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the 1st quarter worth $69,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the 1st quarter worth $97,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in BJ’s Restaurants in the 4th quarter valued at $108,000. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System bought a new position in BJ’s Restaurants in the 4th quarter worth $200,000. 99.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.