BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the six research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $40.40.

BJRI has been the topic of several analyst reports. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wedbush lifted their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Gordon Haskett upgraded BJ’s Restaurants from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $36.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on BJ’s Restaurants from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Down 2.3 %

BJ’s Restaurants stock opened at $34.26 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $35.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $35.19. BJ’s Restaurants has a twelve month low of $27.61 and a twelve month high of $41.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $778.32 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.38, a PEG 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.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The restaurant operator reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $344.34 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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, research analysts expect that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BJ’s Restaurants

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Quarry LP raised its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 764.9% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 813 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 719 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 23.5% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,902 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $67,000 after buying an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants in the 4th quarter worth about $108,000. Arizona State Retirement System acquired a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants in the 4th quarter valued at about $200,000. Finally, Two Sigma Securities LLC purchased a new position in BJ’s Restaurants during the 4th quarter valued at about $201,000. 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 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.