BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Stock Has Average Target Price of $57.12

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $56.50.

Several analysts have commented on BJRI shares. Benchmark lifted their price target on BJ’s Restaurants from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Weiss Ratings raised shares of BJ’s Restaurants from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 2nd. William Blair raised shares of BJ’s Restaurants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, DA Davidson set a $65.00 target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a report on Friday, July 31st.

BJ’s Restaurants Price Performance

BJRI stock opened at $56.51 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $61.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $55.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.22 and a current ratio of 0.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.22, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.33. BJ’s Restaurants has a one year low of $28.46 and a one year high of $74.60.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.04. BJ’s Restaurants had a return on equity of 12.93% and a net margin of 2.86%. The business had revenue of $388.89 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $377.07 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.97 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that BJ’s Restaurants will post 2.36 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at BJ’s Restaurants

In other BJ’s Restaurants news, Director C Richmond purchased 753 shares of BJ’s Restaurants stock in a transaction on Monday, August 31st. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $63.25 per share, with a total value of $47,627.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 35,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,245,375. This represents a 2.17% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Kendra D. Miller sold 10,217 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.31, for a total value of $708,140.27. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 28,599 shares in the company, valued at $1,982,196.69. This trade represents a 26.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 67,784 shares of company stock worth $4,648,326. Company insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of BJ’s Restaurants

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of BJRI. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants in the second quarter worth $200,006,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 2.8% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,114,685 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $39,125,000 after acquiring an additional 30,684 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 73.5% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 324,588 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $11,393,000 after purchasing an additional 137,511 shares during the last quarter. Meros Investment Management LP bought a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants in the second quarter valued at $8,715,047. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the second quarter valued at $7,516,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

BJ’s Restaurants Company Profile

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc (NASDAQ: BJRI) operates and develops casual dining restaurants under the BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse brand. Its restaurants offer a broad menu centered on deep-dish pizza, along with appetizers, salads, sandwiches, burgers, entrees, desserts and other American-style dishes.

The company is also known for producing and serving craft beer, including its proprietary BJ’s beers, at many of its locations. Its restaurants typically combine full-service dining with a brewery-inspired atmosphere and offer dine-in, takeout, delivery and catering services, depending on the location.

BJ’s traces its origins to 1978, when the first restaurant opened in Southern California.