BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the six brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have issued a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $40.40.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Gordon Haskett upgraded BJ’s Restaurants from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $36.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Wedbush boosted their price target on BJ’s Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BJ’s Restaurants

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Quarry LP raised its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 764.9% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 813 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 719 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 23.5% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,902 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 362 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $108,000. Arizona State Retirement System acquired a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants during the 4th quarter worth $200,000. Finally, Two Sigma Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants in the fourth quarter valued at about $201,000. 99.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Down 3.8 %

NASDAQ:BJRI opened at $35.06 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $35.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.11. 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 company has a market cap of $796.49 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 2.10. BJ’s Restaurants has a twelve month low of $27.61 and a twelve month high of $41.72.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The restaurant operator reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $336.48 million. Analysts anticipate that BJ’s Restaurants 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.