BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Trading Up 3.5% – Here’s What Happened

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) shares were up 3.5% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $33.78 and last traded at $33.60. Approximately 119,918 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 65% from the average daily volume of 342,080 shares. The stock had previously closed at $32.47.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on BJRI shares. Wedbush raised their price target on BJ’s Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Oppenheimer lowered BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Gordon Haskett upgraded BJ’s Restaurants from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $36.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, BJ’s Restaurants currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.40.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Up 0.4 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $773.55 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 2.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $35.43 and a 200-day moving average price of $34.85.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last announced its quarterly 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 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%. On average, equities research analysts predict that BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.5 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,242,137 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $43,642,000 after acquiring an additional 78,852 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. raised its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 23.9% in the 4th quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 837,031 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $29,409,000 after acquiring an additional 161,495 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 12.8% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 699,434 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $24,575,000 after acquiring an additional 79,512 shares in the last quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC raised its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 583,828 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $20,513,000 after acquiring an additional 14,607 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 493,006 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $16,056,000 after acquiring an additional 5,075 shares in the last quarter. 99.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.