Short Interest in BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Drops By 14.7%

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) saw a large drop in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,160,000 shares, a drop of 14.7% from the February 13th total of 1,360,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 279,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.2 days. Currently, 5.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BJ’s Restaurants

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BJRI. Quarry LP raised its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 764.9% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 813 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 719 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 23.5% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,902 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in BJ’s Restaurants during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $108,000. Arizona State Retirement System bought a new position in BJ’s Restaurants during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $200,000. Finally, Two Sigma Securities LLC bought a new position in BJ’s Restaurants during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $201,000. Institutional investors own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

BJ’s Restaurants Price Performance

NASDAQ BJRI opened at $32.47 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $34.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.04 and a quick ratio of 0.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $737.65 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 2.10. BJ’s Restaurants has a 52-week low of $27.61 and a 52-week high of $41.72.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The restaurant operator reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $344.34 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $336.48 million. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 1.23% and a return on equity of 8.76%. Equities research analysts predict that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Oppenheimer lowered shares of BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Wedbush upped 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 note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Gordon Haskett raised shares of BJ’s Restaurants from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $36.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. One investment 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $40.40.

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.