BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Short Interest Update

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,810,000 shares, a growth of 19.1% from the April 30th total of 1,520,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 447,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.0 days. Approximately 9.0% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Wedbush lifted their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $33.00 target price on BJ’s Restaurants and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, BJ’s Restaurants currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $37.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BJ’s Restaurants news, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 3,738 shares of BJ’s Restaurants stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.32, for a total value of $165,668.16. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 4,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $202,941.28. The trade was a 44.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Greg Trojan sold 146,102 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.63, for a total value of $6,520,532.26. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 19,896 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $887,958.48. The trade was a 88.01% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BJ’s Restaurants

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BJRI. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 10,774 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $379,000 after purchasing an additional 342 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 23.5% in the 4th 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 boosted its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 12.0% in the 1st quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 3,438 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $118,000 after buying an additional 369 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,176 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $709,000 after buying an additional 1,486 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 14.6% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 13,617 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $467,000 after acquiring an additional 1,732 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

BJ’s Restaurants Price Performance

NASDAQ:BJRI opened at $44.94 on Thursday. BJ’s Restaurants has a one year low of $27.61 and a one year high of $45.80. The stock has a market cap of $993.89 million, a PE ratio of 66.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a current ratio of 0.04. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $37.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.20.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.20. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 1.23% and a return on equity of 8.76%. The firm had revenue of $347.97 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $347.70 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.32 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect 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.