BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Receives Average Recommendation of "Hold" from Brokerages

Key Points

• BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) has a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from analysts, with varying ratings including two sell, three hold, and two buy recommendations.
• The company's stock performance showed a recent 12-month price objective of approximately $39.67 and an earnings per share (EPS) of $0.97, exceeding management's expectations.
• Insider trading activity includes significant sales from SVP Heidi Rogers and CAO Jacob Guild, indicating a decrease in their stock positions, with currently 4.30% of the stock held by corporate insiders.

BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) has been given an average recommendation of "Hold" by the seven brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $39.6667.

A number of brokerages recently commented on BJRI. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on BJ's Restaurants from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Benchmark upgraded BJ's Restaurants from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $44.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Barclays upped their price objective on BJ's Restaurants from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Wall Street Zen upgraded BJ's Restaurants from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 16th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $33.00 price objective on BJ's Restaurants and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Heidi Rogers sold 4,116 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.36, for a total transaction of $145,541.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 7,144 shares in the company, valued at $252,611.84. This represents a 36.55% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Jacob Guild sold 9,521 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.51, for a total value of $338,090.71. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 3,803 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $135,044.53. The trade was a 71.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. grew its stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 18.0% in the second quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 2,189 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $98,000 after purchasing an additional 334 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 10,774 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $379,000 after purchasing an additional 342 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC grew its stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 12.0% in the first quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 3,438 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $118,000 after purchasing an additional 369 shares in the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 1.8% in the second quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 23,034 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $1,027,000 after purchasing an additional 397 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue grew its stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 4.2% in the second quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 13,172 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $586,000 after purchasing an additional 529 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.95% of the company's stock.

BJ's Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of BJRI stock traded down $0.05 on Friday, hitting $34.22. 573,178 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 663,566. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.32. The company has a market capitalization of $756.95 million, a PE ratio of 28.76, a PEG ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.59. BJ's Restaurants has a 1-year low of $27.89 and a 1-year high of $47.02. The company's fifty day moving average is $39.25 and its 200 day moving average is $37.96.

BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The restaurant operator reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.28. The business had revenue of $365.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $362.74 million. BJ's Restaurants had a return on equity of 11.73% and a net margin of 1.99%.The business's revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.72 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that BJ's Restaurants will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.