BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the nine ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $38.30.

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BJRI. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Benchmark raised their target price on BJ’s Restaurants from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on BJ’s Restaurants from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd.

Insider Transactions at BJ’s Restaurants

In other news, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 1,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.56, for a total transaction of $56,896.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 7,652 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $272,105.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 4.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BJ’s Restaurants

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of BJRI. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 141.0% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,270 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 743 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $67,000. C M Bidwell & Associates Ltd. acquired a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $95,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $95,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

BJ’s Restaurants Price Performance

BJ’s Restaurants stock opened at $34.64 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $34.21 and its 200 day simple moving average is $34.41. The stock has a market cap of $809.88 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 2.11. BJ’s Restaurants has a 12-month low of $21.64 and a 12-month high of $38.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The restaurant operator reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $337.33 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $335.35 million. BJ’s Restaurants had a return on equity of 6.51% and a net margin of 1.80%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.15 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.36 earnings per share for the current year.

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