BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Sets New 12-Month High – Here’s Why

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $46.09 and last traded at $46.02, with a volume of 87428 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $45.21.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BJRI. Barclays lifted their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Wedbush boosted their price target on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $33.00 price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants 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 issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, BJ’s Restaurants has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.20.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Up 0.3%

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 $1.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 66.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.58. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $39.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.63.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $347.97 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $347.70 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.32 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.5 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BJ’s Restaurants news, 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 sale, the director now owns 19,896 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $887,958.48. This trade represents a 88.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 3,738 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.32, for a total transaction of $165,668.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 4,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $202,941.28. This trade represents a 44.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 4.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BJRI. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 3.3% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 23.5% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,902 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $67,000 after buying an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC grew its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 12.0% during the 1st quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 3,438 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $118,000 after buying an additional 369 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake 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 acquiring an additional 1,486 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 14.6% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 13,617 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $467,000 after purchasing an additional 1,732 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

BJ’s Restaurants Company Profile

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.