Barclays Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Stock

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) had its target price lifted by research analysts at Barclays from $32.00 to $34.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “underweight” rating on the restaurant operator’s stock. Barclays‘s price objective indicates a potential downside of 3.71% from the stock’s current price.

BJRI has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Oppenheimer lowered BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $43.00 price target on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on BJ’s Restaurants from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, BJ’s Restaurants currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.00.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ BJRI opened at $35.31 on Tuesday. BJ’s Restaurants has a 1-year low of $27.61 and a 1-year high of $38.87. The company has a current ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $35.89 and a 200-day moving average of $33.98. The firm has a market cap of $805.67 million, a PE ratio of 28.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 2.10.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The restaurant operator reported ($0.13) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by ($0.15). BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 2.24% and a return on equity of 7.98%. The company had revenue of $325.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $324.97 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.16) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.26 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BJ’s Restaurants news, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 2,313 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.60, for a total transaction of $82,342.80. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,339 shares in the company, valued at approximately $190,068.40. This represents a 30.23 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 4.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 11.4% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 6,760 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $220,000 after acquiring an additional 693 shares during the period. Quarry LP grew its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 764.9% in the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 813 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 719 shares during the last quarter. ClariVest Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. ClariVest Asset Management LLC now owns 29,089 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,009,000 after buying an additional 780 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE grew its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 142.9% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,540 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 906 shares during the last quarter. Finally, WINTON GROUP Ltd grew its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 29,499 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,024,000 after buying an additional 1,058 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.