Dark Forest Capital Management LP Takes $250,000 Position in BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)

Dark Forest Capital Management LP bought a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 7,121 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $250,000.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in BJRI. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 493,006 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $16,056,000 after purchasing an additional 5,075 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 27,284 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $888,000 after purchasing an additional 1,823 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 110,833 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $3,894,000 after purchasing an additional 1,752 shares during the period. Rothschild Investment LLC increased its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 110,895 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,896,000 after buying an additional 3,835 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in BJ’s Restaurants in the fourth quarter worth approximately $574,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BJRI has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wedbush increased 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. Oppenheimer downgraded BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays dropped their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $37.00 to $31.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Gordon Haskett upgraded BJ’s Restaurants from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $36.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BJ’s Restaurants has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.20.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ:BJRI opened at $33.49 on Tuesday. BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. has a 12 month low of $27.61 and a 12 month high of $41.72. The firm has a market cap of $747.36 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.78. The company has a quick ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The company’s 50 day moving average is $34.08 and its 200-day moving average is $35.14.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The restaurant operator reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.12. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 1.23% and a return on equity of 8.76%. The company had revenue of $344.34 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $336.48 million. Equities analysts anticipate that BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.5 EPS for the current 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.