State of Wyoming Sells 6,022 Shares of BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)

State of Wyoming cut its position in BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI - Free Report) by 80.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,481 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 6,022 shares during the quarter. State of Wyoming's holdings in BJ's Restaurants were worth $52,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in BJ's Restaurants by 23.5% in 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 last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in BJ's Restaurants in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $108,000. Arizona State Retirement System acquired a new stake in BJ's Restaurants in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $200,000. Two Sigma Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants in the fourth quarter worth $201,000. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants in the fourth quarter worth $203,000. 99.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on BJRI shares. Barclays boosted their target price 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. 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, Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of BJ's Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $37.20.

BJ's Restaurants Price Performance

Shares of BJRI traded down $0.54 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $44.97. The stock had a trading volume of 745,570 shares, compared to its average volume of 372,752. The company's fifty day moving average is $37.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $36.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.04 and a quick ratio of 0.28. BJ's Restaurants, Inc. has a 52 week low of $27.61 and a 52 week high of $45.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $994.56 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.47.

BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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. 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 net margin of 1.23% and a return on equity of 8.76%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.32 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that BJ's Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.5 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Greg Trojan sold 146,102 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $887,958.48. This trade represents a 88.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 3,738 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were 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 $202,941.28. This 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.

BJ's Restaurants 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.