BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Price Target Raised to $45.00

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) had its target price hoisted by Benchmark from $41.00 to $45.00 in a report published on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the restaurant operator’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on BJRI. Wedbush restated an outperform rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $37.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, January 5th. TheStreet upgraded shares of BJ’s Restaurants from a c rating to a b- rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Stephens reiterated an equal weight rating and set a $35.00 price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on BJ’s Restaurants from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $38.30.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of BJ’s Restaurants stock opened at $34.68 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.42. BJ’s Restaurants has a 1 year low of $21.64 and a 1 year high of $38.76. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $34.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.78. The firm has a market cap of $810.82 million, a PE ratio of 34.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 2.12.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The restaurant operator reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $337.33 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $335.35 million. BJ’s Restaurants had a return on equity of 6.56% and a net margin of 1.80%. BJ’s Restaurants’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.15 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Alex Puchner sold 7,713 shares of BJ’s Restaurants stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.25, for a total value of $295,022.25. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 12,222 shares in the company, valued at approximately $467,491.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, VP Alex Puchner sold 7,713 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.25, for a total value of $295,022.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 12,222 shares in the company, valued at approximately $467,491.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Fund 1 Investments, Llc sold 242,000 shares of BJ’s Restaurants stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.53, for a total value of $8,598,260.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 2,326,476 shares in the company, valued at approximately $82,659,692.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 4.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BJ’s Restaurants

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 141.0% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,270 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 743 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants in the third quarter worth $42,000. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the fourth quarter valued at $95,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new position in BJ’s Restaurants during the third quarter valued at $67,000. Finally, C M Bidwell & Associates Ltd. purchased a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants in the 3rd quarter worth about $95,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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. The company was formerly known as Chicago Pizza & Brewery, Inc and changed its name to BJ's Restaurants, Inc in August 2004.