BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Hits New 12-Month High - Should You Buy?

BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report)'s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $45.80 and last traded at $44.97, with a volume of 745570 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $45.51.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $33.00 price objective on shares of BJ's Restaurants and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of BJ's Restaurants from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Wedbush increased their target price on BJ's Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $37.20.

BJ's Restaurants Stock Down 2.6%

The firm's 50 day moving average is $37.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $36.20. The stock has a market cap of $968.24 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 64.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a current ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $347.97 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $347.70 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.32 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that BJ's Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.5 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at BJ's Restaurants

In other BJ's Restaurants news, Director Greg Trojan sold 146,102 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director now directly owns 19,896 shares of the company's stock, valued at $887,958.48. This trade represents a 88.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 3,738 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.32, for a total value of $165,668.16. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 4,579 shares in the company, valued at $202,941.28. This trade represents a 44.94% 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

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 23.5% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,902 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 362 shares during the period. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in BJ's Restaurants in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $69,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants during the 1st quarter worth approximately $97,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants during the 4th quarter worth approximately $108,000. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System acquired a new position in BJ's Restaurants during the fourth quarter worth $200,000. Institutional investors own 99.95% of the company's stock.

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.