BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Shares Sold by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc decreased its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) by 8.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 59,921 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 5,380 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in BJ’s Restaurants were worth $2,105,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 23.5% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,902 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 110,833 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,894,000 after buying an additional 1,752 shares during the period. Cibc World Markets Corp boosted its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 126,771 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,454,000 after buying an additional 1,771 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 27,284 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $888,000 after buying an additional 1,823 shares during the period. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 8.9% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 33,417 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,174,000 after acquiring an additional 2,743 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Down 2.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ BJRI opened at $33.02 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $34.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $35.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. has a 12-month low of $27.61 and a 12-month high of $41.72. The company has a market cap of $750.15 million, a P/E ratio of 48.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.78.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on BJRI shares. Gordon Haskett upgraded shares of 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. Wedbush lifted their target price on BJ’s Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on BJ’s Restaurants from $37.00 to $31.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.20.

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.