Armistice Capital LLC Sells 300,000 Shares of BJ's Restaurants, Inc. $BJRI

Key Points

• Armistice Capital LLC significantly reduced its stake in BJ's Restaurants, cutting ownership by 85.7% to 50,000 shares during the first quarter, following the sale of 300,000 shares.
• Several hedge funds, including GAMMA Investing LLC and Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC, have recently made notable adjustments to their holdings in BJ's Restaurants, with a majority of the stock now owned by institutional investors.
• Analysts have mixed ratings on BJ's Restaurants, with two rating it a "Buy" and several others maintaining "Hold" or "Sell" ratings, impacting the average target price, currently set at $39.67.

Armistice Capital LLC decreased its holdings in BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI - Free Report) by 85.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 50,000 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 300,000 shares during the period. Armistice Capital LLC owned 0.23% of BJ's Restaurants worth $1,713,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nomura Holdings Inc. grew its stake in BJ's Restaurants by 103.2% during the first quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 1,700,780 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $58,269,000 after acquiring an additional 863,749 shares in the last quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. purchased a new position in BJ's Restaurants during the first quarter valued at approximately $754,000. Martingale Asset Management L P purchased a new position in BJ's Restaurants during the first quarter valued at approximately $788,000. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in BJ's Restaurants during the first quarter valued at approximately $498,000. Finally, Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in BJ's Restaurants during the first quarter valued at approximately $69,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.95% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of BJ's Restaurants from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of BJ's Restaurants from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of BJ's Restaurants from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 16th. Finally, Benchmark raised shares of BJ's Restaurants from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $44.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, BJ's Restaurants presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $39.67.

BJ's Restaurants Price Performance

BJRI stock traded up $0.69 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $33.85. The company had a trading volume of 802,311 shares, compared to its average volume of 546,324. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.32. BJ's Restaurants, Inc. has a 1 year low of $27.89 and a 1 year high of $47.02. The company has a market capitalization of $748.76 million, a P/E ratio of 28.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.37. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $38.11 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.91.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Heidi Rogers sold 4,116 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.36, for a total value of $145,541.76. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 7,144 shares in the company, valued at approximately $252,611.84. The trade was a 36.55% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Jacob Guild sold 9,521 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.51, for a total transaction of $338,090.71. Following the completion of the sale, 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. Insiders own 4.90% 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.