Northern Trust Corp Purchases 19,239 Shares of BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)

Northern Trust Corp increased its position in BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI - Free Report) by 9.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 229,029 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after purchasing an additional 19,239 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp owned approximately 1.00% of BJ's Restaurants worth $8,047,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of BJRI. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 23.5% in 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 during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in BJ's Restaurants during the fourth quarter worth $108,000. Arizona State Retirement System bought a new position in BJ's Restaurants during the 4th quarter valued at $200,000. Two Sigma Securities LLC bought a new position in BJ's Restaurants during the 4th quarter valued at $201,000. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC boosted its holdings in BJ's Restaurants by 1,251.3% during the 4th quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 6,297 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $221,000 after acquiring an additional 5,831 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.95% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 3,738 shares of BJ's Restaurants stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now owns 4,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,941.28. This trade represents a 44.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Greg Trojan sold 146,102 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.63, for a total transaction of $6,520,532.26. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 19,896 shares in the company, valued at $887,958.48. This represents a 88.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wedbush raised their price target on shares of BJ's Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $33.00 target price on shares of BJ's Restaurants and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on BJ's Restaurants from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BJ's Restaurants has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $37.20.

BJ's Restaurants Stock Performance

BJRI traded up $0.94 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $42.44. The company had a trading volume of 260,393 shares, compared to its average volume of 367,294. BJ's Restaurants, Inc. has a 12-month low of $27.61 and a 12-month high of $45.22. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $35.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $35.72. The stock has a market cap of $938.60 million, a PE ratio of 62.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a current ratio of 0.04.

BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $347.97 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $347.70 million. BJ's Restaurants had a return on equity of 8.76% and a net margin of 1.23%. BJ's Restaurants's revenue for the quarter was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.32 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that BJ's Restaurants, Inc. 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.