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

Shares of BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the nine analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $37.30.

BJRI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $37.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Barclays raised their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. Citigroup raised their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $28.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $35.00 price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research note on Friday, February 16th.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BJ’s Restaurants

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BJRI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 37.2% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 30,829 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $873,000 after purchasing an additional 8,363 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. boosted its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 19.2% during the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 21,113 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $598,000 after purchasing an additional 3,404 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 23.4% during the first quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 7,502 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $210,000 after purchasing an additional 1,423 shares in the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 57.0% during the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 14,264 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $404,000 after purchasing an additional 5,181 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers boosted its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 3.3% during the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 60,302 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,707,000 after purchasing an additional 1,941 shares in the last quarter. 99.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ BJRI opened at $32.81 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $31.84. BJ’s Restaurants has a twelve month low of $21.64 and a twelve month high of $38.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company has a market capitalization of $767.75 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.53, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 2.12.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The restaurant operator reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.07. BJ’s Restaurants had a return on equity of 5.45% and a net margin of 1.47%. The business had revenue of $323.64 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $331.03 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.17 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.23 EPS for the current fiscal 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.