BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the six research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $40.40.

BJRI has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Gordon Haskett upgraded BJ’s Restaurants from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $36.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Oppenheimer cut BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Down 3.8 %

BJRI stock opened at $35.06 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $35.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $35.11. BJ’s Restaurants has a fifty-two week low of $27.61 and a fifty-two week high of $41.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a current ratio of 0.04. The company has a market cap of $796.49 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 2.10.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The restaurant operator reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.12. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 1.23% and a return on equity of 8.76%. The company had revenue of $344.34 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $336.48 million. As a group, analysts forecast that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 10,774 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $379,000 after buying an additional 342 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE grew its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 23.5% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,902 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $67,000 after acquiring an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 11.4% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 6,760 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $220,000 after acquiring an additional 693 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP lifted its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 764.9% in the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 813 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 719 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,176 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $709,000 after purchasing an additional 1,486 shares during the period. 99.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.