BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results

Key Points

• BJ's Restaurants reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $0.97, significantly beating the consensus estimate of $0.69, with a revenue of $365.60 million this quarter.
• Despite the strong earnings report, BJ's Restaurants' stock fell by 3.6% following the announcement, with shares trading at around $34.17.
• Insider transactions were notable, with director Greg Trojan selling 146,102 shares of stock, reflecting an 88.01% decrease in ownership following the sale.

BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The restaurant operator reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.28, Zacks reports. BJ's Restaurants had a return on equity of 11.84% and a net margin of 1.99%. The company had revenue of $365.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $362.74 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.72 EPS. BJ's Restaurants's quarterly revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis.

BJ's Restaurants Stock Down 3.6%

Shares of NASDAQ BJRI opened at $34.17 on Friday. BJ's Restaurants has a 1 year low of $27.61 and a 1 year high of $47.02. The firm has a market cap of $755.70 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.71, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 0.39. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $42.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.11.

Insider Transactions at BJ's Restaurants

In other news, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 3,738 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.32, for a total transaction of $165,668.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 4,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,941.28. The trade was a 44.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Greg Trojan sold 146,102 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.63, for a total value of $6,520,532.26. Following the transaction, the director owned 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 currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

An institutional investor recently raised its position in BJ's Restaurants stock. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI - Free Report) by 15.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 37,189 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after purchasing an additional 5,013 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC owned 0.17% of BJ's Restaurants worth $1,274,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.95% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on BJRI. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $33.00 target price on BJ's Restaurants and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Wall Street Zen cut BJ's Restaurants from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on BJ's Restaurants from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target 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. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $38.80.

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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