BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Raised to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on BJRI. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Zacks Research lowered shares of BJ’s Restaurants from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research note on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.75.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Up 18.4%

NASDAQ BJRI opened at $33.96 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a current ratio of 0.38. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $31.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $751.33 million, a PE ratio of 28.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.34. BJ’s Restaurants has a one year low of $28.46 and a one year high of $47.02.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $330.16 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $335.86 million. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 1.99% and a return on equity of 11.73%. BJ’s Restaurants’s revenue was up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.13) EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current year.

BJ’s Restaurants announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, October 30th that authorizes the company to repurchase $75.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the restaurant operator to repurchase up to 11.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at BJ’s Restaurants

In other news, CAO Jacob Guild sold 9,521 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.51, for a total value of $338,090.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 3,803 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $135,044.53. This represents a 71.46% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Alex Puchner sold 1,821 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.06, for a total transaction of $62,023.26. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 10,622 shares in the company, valued at $361,785.32. The trade was a 14.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 15,458 shares of company stock valued at $545,656. Company insiders own 4.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of BJ’s Restaurants

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Nomura Holdings Inc. raised its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 103.2% in the 1st quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 1,700,780 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $58,269,000 after purchasing an additional 863,749 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 6.6% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 824,597 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $36,777,000 after purchasing an additional 51,062 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 233.6% in the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 628,445 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $28,029,000 after purchasing an additional 440,078 shares in the last quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC raised its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 593,478 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $26,469,000 after purchasing an additional 15,151 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 523,687 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $23,359,000 after purchasing an additional 25,892 shares in the last quarter. 99.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.