Insider Selling: BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Insider Sells 3,738 Shares of Stock

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) insider Brian S. Krakower sold 3,738 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.32, for a total value of $165,668.16. Following the sale, the insider now owns 4,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,941.28. The trade was a 44.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

BJ’s Restaurants Price Performance

Shares of BJRI opened at $44.83 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $991.46 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.93, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.47. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $34.75 and a 200-day moving average of $35.47. The company has a current ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. has a 52 week low of $27.61 and a 52 week high of $45.22.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $347.97 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $347.70 million. BJ’s Restaurants had a return on equity of 8.76% and a net margin of 1.23%. The business’s revenue was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.32 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.5 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in BJ’s Restaurants during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $4,502,000. Emerald Advisers LLC boosted its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 583,828 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $20,513,000 after purchasing an additional 14,607 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 198.2% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 11,603 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $410,000 after purchasing an additional 7,712 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 147.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 259,977 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $9,134,000 after purchasing an additional 155,109 shares during the period. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in BJ’s Restaurants during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $574,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on BJRI shares. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $33.00 price objective on BJ’s Restaurants and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a 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, Barclays lifted their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, BJ’s Restaurants currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $37.20.

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.