Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Lowers Stock Position in BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC decreased its position in BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) by 38.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 38,718 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 23,714 shares during the quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC owned 0.17% of BJ’s Restaurants worth $1,394,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants in the 3rd quarter valued at $42,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants during the third quarter worth about $67,000. C M Bidwell & Associates Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the third quarter worth about $95,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 62.1% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 4,872 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $114,000 after purchasing an additional 1,867 shares during the period. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants in the third quarter valued at approximately $180,000. 99.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Alex Puchner sold 7,713 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.25, for a total transaction 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 SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Fund 1 Investments, Llc sold 242,000 shares of BJ’s Restaurants stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.53, for a total transaction of $8,598,260.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 2,326,476 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $82,659,692.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Alex Puchner sold 7,713 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the vice president now owns 12,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $467,491.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Performance

NASDAQ:BJRI opened at $33.54 on Wednesday. BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $21.64 and a fifty-two week high of $38.76. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $34.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $32.92. The company has a market cap of $784.17 million, a P/E ratio of 33.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 2.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The restaurant operator reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.17. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 1.80% and a return on equity of 6.51%. The firm had revenue of $337.33 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $335.35 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.15 earnings per share. BJ’s Restaurants’s revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.23 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on BJRI. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. TheStreet upgraded BJ’s Restaurants from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Benchmark upped their target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $28.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $35.00 price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research report on Friday, February 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, BJ’s Restaurants currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.30.

BJ’s Restaurants 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.