Barclays Cuts BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Price Target to $28.00

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) had its price objective trimmed by Barclays from $37.00 to $28.00 in a research report released on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has an underweight rating on the restaurant operator’s stock.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Benchmark raised shares of BJ’s Restaurants from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $44.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of BJ’s Restaurants from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of BJ’s Restaurants from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, September 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BJ’s Restaurants has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.17.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Up 0.9%

BJ’s Restaurants stock opened at $32.97 on Wednesday. BJ’s Restaurants has a twelve month low of $28.92 and a twelve month high of $47.02. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $32.05 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.98. The company has a market capitalization of $729.30 million, a P/E ratio of 27.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a quick ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The restaurant operator reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.28. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 1.99% and a return on equity of 11.73%. The firm had revenue of $365.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $362.74 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.72 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.5 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at BJ’s Restaurants

In other BJ’s Restaurants news, CAO Jacob Guild sold 9,521 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.51, for a total value of $338,090.71. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 3,803 shares in the company, valued at $135,044.53. This represents a 71.46% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Heidi Rogers sold 4,116 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.36, for a total transaction of $145,541.76. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 7,144 shares in the company, valued at $252,611.84. This represents a 36.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 15,458 shares of company stock worth $545,656. 4.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of BJ’s Restaurants

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of BJRI. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants in the 1st quarter worth approximately $69,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants in the 1st quarter worth approximately $97,000. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. lifted its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 18.0% in the 2nd quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 2,189 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $98,000 after purchasing an additional 334 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 51.8% in the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 2,887 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $99,000 after purchasing an additional 985 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 77.5% in the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,317 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $103,000 after purchasing an additional 1,012 shares in the last quarter. 99.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.