BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Given Average Recommendation of "Reduce" by Brokerages

BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus recommendation of "Reduce" by the seven brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. 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 company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $37.20.

Several research analysts have recently commented on BJRI shares. Wedbush increased their price target on shares of BJ's Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Barclays increased their price target 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, May 2nd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $33.00 price target on shares of BJ's Restaurants and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 3,738 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.32, for a total transaction of $165,668.16. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 4,579 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $202,941.28. This represents a 44.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Greg Trojan sold 146,102 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.63, for a total transaction of $6,520,532.26. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 19,896 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $887,958.48. This represents a 88.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of BJ's Restaurants

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in BJ's Restaurants by 23.5% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,902 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares during the period. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new stake in BJ's Restaurants in the 1st quarter valued at $69,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new stake in BJ's Restaurants in the 1st quarter valued at $97,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in BJ's Restaurants in the 4th quarter valued at $108,000. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System bought a new stake in BJ's Restaurants in the 4th quarter valued at $200,000. 99.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

BJ's Restaurants Stock Up 0.7%

BJ's Restaurants stock opened at $44.10 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $975.32 million, a PE ratio of 64.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a current ratio of 0.04. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $37.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $36.34. BJ's Restaurants has a twelve month low of $27.61 and a twelve month high of $45.80.

BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $347.97 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $347.70 million. BJ's Restaurants had a net margin of 1.23% and a return on equity of 8.76%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.32 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that BJ's Restaurants will post 1.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.

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