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

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) has earned an average recommendation of “Reduce” from the seven ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $37.20.

BJRI has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Wedbush upped their target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $33.00 target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Up 0.0%

NASDAQ BJRI opened at $44.83 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. BJ’s Restaurants has a 52 week low of $27.61 and a 52 week high of $45.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $991.46 million, a PE ratio of 65.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.47. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $34.75 and a two-hundred day moving average of $35.46.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.20. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 1.23% and a return on equity of 8.76%. The company had revenue of $347.97 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $347.70 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.32 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 3,738 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.32, for a total transaction of $165,668.16. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 4,579 shares in the company, valued at $202,941.28. This represents a 44.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Greg Trojan sold 146,102 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.63, for a total transaction of $6,520,532.26. Following the sale, the director now owns 19,896 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $887,958.48. This represents a 88.01% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 4.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of BJ’s Restaurants

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Nomura Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 103.2% during the 1st quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 1,700,780 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $58,269,000 after purchasing an additional 863,749 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,242,137 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $43,642,000 after purchasing an additional 78,852 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 10.6% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 773,535 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $26,501,000 after purchasing an additional 74,101 shares during the period. Emerald Advisers LLC boosted its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 583,828 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $20,513,000 after purchasing an additional 14,607 shares during the period. Finally, Cramer Rosenthal Mcglynn LLC raised its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 28.4% during the 4th quarter. Cramer Rosenthal Mcglynn LLC now owns 416,709 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $14,641,000 after buying an additional 92,285 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

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 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.