BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Shares Gap Up – Here’s What Happened

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $34.52, but opened at $36.54. BJ’s Restaurants shares last traded at $35.56, with a volume of 26,309 shares trading hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BJRI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler raised their target price on BJ’s Restaurants from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Gordon Haskett raised BJ’s Restaurants from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $36.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Oppenheimer downgraded BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays increased their price target on BJ’s Restaurants from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $43.00 price target on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a report on Friday, November 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.00.

BJ’s Restaurants Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average price of $35.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $33.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.35 and a quick ratio of 0.28. The firm has a market cap of $782.27 million, a PE ratio of 27.42, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 2.10.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The restaurant operator reported ($0.13) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by ($0.15). The company had revenue of $325.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $324.97 million. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 2.24% and a return on equity of 7.98%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.16) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 2,313 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.60, for a total transaction of $82,342.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,339 shares in the company, valued at $190,068.40. This represents a 30.23 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 4.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of BJ’s Restaurants

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 11.4% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 6,760 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $220,000 after purchasing an additional 693 shares during the period. Quarry LP boosted its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 764.9% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 813 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 719 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE boosted its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 142.9% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,540 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 906 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 7.2% during the 3rd 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 during the period. Finally, Creative Planning boosted its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 27.1% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 11,620 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $403,000 after purchasing an additional 2,477 shares during the period. 99.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.