Marshall Wace LLP Acquires New Stake in BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)

Marshall Wace LLP bought a new stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 34,055 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $1,196,000. Marshall Wace LLP owned 0.15% of BJ's Restaurants at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 12.8% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 699,434 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $24,575,000 after acquiring an additional 79,512 shares in the last quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC increased its stake in BJ's Restaurants by 2.6% in the fourth 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 last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in BJ's Restaurants by 147.9% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 259,977 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $9,134,000 after purchasing an additional 155,109 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants during the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,502,000. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp boosted its holdings in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 126,771 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $4,454,000 after buying an additional 1,771 shares in the last quarter. 99.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BJRI has been the topic of a number of research reports. Gordon Haskett upgraded shares of BJ's Restaurants from an "underperform" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $36.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of BJ's Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Oppenheimer lowered shares of BJ's Restaurants from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of BJ's Restaurants from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $39.60.

BJ's Restaurants Stock Up 13.2 %

NASDAQ BJRI traded up $4.42 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $37.91. The company had a trading volume of 1,996,842 shares, compared to its average volume of 360,759. The firm's 50 day moving average is $33.83 and its 200 day moving average is $35.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.04 and a quick ratio of 0.28. BJ's Restaurants, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.61 and a fifty-two week high of $41.72. The company has a market capitalization of $846.00 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.78.

BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.59 earnings per share 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $347.70 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.32 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that BJ's Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BJ's Restaurants 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.