Arizona State Retirement System Invests $200,000 in BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)

Arizona State Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 5,698 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $200,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the fourth quarter worth about $574,000. US Bancorp DE raised its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 23.5% during 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 during the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC increased its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 110,895 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,896,000 after purchasing an additional 3,835 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 110,833 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,894,000 after purchasing an additional 1,752 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 7.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 27,284 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $888,000 after purchasing an additional 1,823 shares in the last quarter. 99.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BJRI has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. 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 report on Wednesday, January 8th. Oppenheimer downgraded BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays lifted their target price on BJ’s Restaurants from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Wedbush lifted their target price on BJ’s Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BJ’s Restaurants currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.40.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Up 2.6 %

NASDAQ BJRI opened at $32.36 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $735.15 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 2.10. BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. has a 52 week low of $27.61 and a 52 week high of $41.72. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $35.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $34.81. The company has a quick ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

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. The company had revenue of $344.34 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $336.48 million. BJ’s Restaurants had a return on equity of 8.76% and a net margin of 1.23%. As a group, equities analysts expect that BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.