Wall Street Zen Upgrades BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) to "Buy"

BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note issued on Saturday.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in 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 note on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays upped their price objective on BJ's Restaurants from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $37.20.

BJ's Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of BJRI stock traded down $0.66 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $46.12. The company had a trading volume of 268,898 shares, compared to its average volume of 385,491. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $42.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.47. BJ's Restaurants has a 52-week low of $27.61 and a 52-week high of $47.02. The stock has a market cap of $1.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.06, a PEG ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.39 and a quick ratio of 0.31.

BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results 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. BJ's Restaurants had a return on equity of 10.35% and a net margin of 1.64%. The company had revenue of $347.97 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $347.70 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.32 EPS. The company's revenue was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that BJ's Restaurants will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BJ's Restaurants news, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 3,738 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Greg Trojan sold 146,102 shares of the business's 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 owned 19,896 shares in the company, valued at approximately $887,958.48. The trade was a 88.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 4.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of BJ's Restaurants

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. US Bancorp DE boosted its position in BJ's Restaurants by 23.5% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,902 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new stake in BJ's Restaurants during the first quarter worth $69,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new stake in BJ's Restaurants during the first quarter worth $97,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in BJ's Restaurants during the fourth quarter worth $108,000. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System purchased a new stake in BJ's Restaurants during the fourth quarter worth $200,000. 99.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.