BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Stock Gets Price Target Reduction from Citigroup

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) had its price objective lowered by investment analysts at Citigroup from $75.00 to $70.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the restaurant operator’s stock. Citigroup‘s price target would indicate a potential upside of 23.35% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on BJRI. Zacks Research downgraded BJ’s Restaurants from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 15th. William Blair raised BJ’s Restaurants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Weiss Ratings raised BJ’s Restaurants from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 2nd. DA Davidson set a $65.00 target price on BJ’s Restaurants in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Benchmark boosted their price target on BJ’s Restaurants from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, BJ’s Restaurants presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.50.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Performance

BJRI stock traded down $2.04 on Friday, hitting $56.75. The company had a trading volume of 264,554 shares, compared to its average volume of 426,205. BJ’s Restaurants has a 12-month low of $28.46 and a 12-month high of $74.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $61.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $55.15. The stock has a market cap of $1.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.33.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $388.89 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $377.07 million. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 2.86% and a return on equity of 12.93%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.97 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that BJ’s Restaurants will post 2.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at BJ’s Restaurants

In other news, Director Noah A. Elbogen sold 7,535 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.14, for a total value of $528,504.90. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 71,655 shares in the company, valued at $5,025,881.70. This represents a 9.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director C Richmond acquired 753 shares of BJ’s Restaurants stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 31st. The stock was bought at an average price of $63.25 per share, with a total value of $47,627.25. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 35,500 shares in the company, valued at $2,245,375. This represents a 2.17% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 67,784 shares of company stock worth $4,648,326. 2.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of BJ’s Restaurants

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the 2nd quarter valued at about $200,006,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,114,685 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $39,125,000 after acquiring an additional 30,684 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 73.5% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 324,588 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $11,393,000 after acquiring an additional 137,511 shares during the period. Meros Investment Management LP bought a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $8,715,047. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in BJ’s Restaurants during the second quarter valued at approximately $7,516,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

BJ’s Restaurants Company Profile

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc (NASDAQ: BJRI) operates and develops casual dining restaurants under the BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse brand. Its restaurants offer a broad menu centered on deep-dish pizza, along with appetizers, salads, sandwiches, burgers, entrees, desserts and other American-style dishes.

The company is also known for producing and serving craft beer, including its proprietary BJ’s beers, at many of its locations. Its restaurants typically combine full-service dining with a brewery-inspired atmosphere and offer dine-in, takeout, delivery and catering services, depending on the location.

BJ’s traces its origins to 1978, when the first restaurant opened in Southern California.