Maverick Capital Ltd. Purchases New Position in BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)

Maverick Capital Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 7,795 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $254,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of BJRI. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the second quarter valued at about $40,000. US Bancorp DE increased its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 142.9% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,540 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 906 shares during the period. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the second quarter valued at about $57,000. Headlands Technologies LLC increased its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 247.8% during the second quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 1,864 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $65,000 after buying an additional 1,328 shares during the period. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the second quarter valued at about $187,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $43.00 price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $35.00 to $32.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, BJ’s Restaurants has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.57.

Insider Transactions at BJ’s Restaurants

In related news, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 2,313 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were 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 $190,068.40. This represents a 30.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO C Bradford Richmond acquired 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The shares were bought at an average price of $29.40 per share, for a total transaction of $73,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 16,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $497,007. This trade represents a 17.36 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 4.90% of the company’s stock.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ BJRI opened at $38.44 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $34.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $33.81. The company has a market cap of $877.20 million, a PE ratio of 30.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 2.10. BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. has a 52-week low of $27.61 and a 52-week high of $38.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a current ratio of 0.35.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The restaurant operator reported ($0.13) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.02 by ($0.15). The firm had revenue of $325.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $324.97 million. BJ’s Restaurants had a return on equity of 7.98% and a net margin of 2.24%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.16) EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BJ’s Restaurants 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.