BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Shares Gap Down After Analyst Downgrade

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Friday after Barclays lowered their price target on the stock from $36.00 to $35.00. The stock had previously closed at $37.24, but opened at $34.77. Barclays currently has an underweight rating on the stock. BJ’s Restaurants shares last traded at $33.55, with a volume of 222,969 shares trading hands.

BJRI has been the topic of a number of other reports. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $43.00 price target on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Benchmark lowered BJ’s Restaurants from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BJ’s Restaurants news, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 1,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.56, for a total transaction of $56,896.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,652 shares in the company, valued at $272,105.12. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 4.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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. GSA Capital Partners LLP boosted its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 40.8% during the 4th quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 92,176 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,319,000 after buying an additional 26,722 shares during the period. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 21.0% in the first quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 296,176 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $10,716,000 after purchasing an additional 51,364 shares during the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC increased its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 298.7% in the fourth quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 141,556 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,097,000 after purchasing an additional 106,054 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 327,259 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $11,785,000 after purchasing an additional 4,163 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,595,522 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $60,891,000 after purchasing an additional 8,763 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

BJ’s Restaurants Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $786.50 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 2.13. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $35.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $34.82. The company has a current ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The restaurant operator reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.23. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 1.80% and a return on equity of 6.51%. The business had revenue of $349.93 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $349.18 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.50 earnings per share. BJ’s Restaurants’s quarterly revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.35 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. The company was formerly known as Chicago Pizza & Brewery, Inc and changed its name to BJ's Restaurants, Inc in August 2004.