BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $39.20.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of BJRI. Nomura Holdings Inc. increased 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 buying an additional 161,495 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 147.9% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 259,977 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $9,134,000 after purchasing an additional 155,109 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants during the 4th quarter worth about $4,502,000. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. lifted its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 60.3% during the 4th quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 277,874 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $9,763,000 after purchasing an additional 104,490 shares during the period. Finally, Cramer Rosenthal Mcglynn LLC boosted its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 28.4% in the 4th quarter. Cramer Rosenthal Mcglynn LLC now owns 416,709 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $14,641,000 after purchasing an additional 92,285 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of BJRI opened at $33.70 on Friday. 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 stock has a market cap of $765.60 million, a PE ratio of 49.56, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.78. BJ’s Restaurants has a 1 year low of $27.61 and a 1 year high of $41.72. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $34.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.11.

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

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.