Cerity Partners LLC Makes New Investment in BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)

Key Points

• Cerity Partners LLC acquired 16,645 shares of BJ's Restaurants, Inc., valued at approximately $570,000, increasing its stake to about 0.07% of the company.
• BJ's Restaurants reported a quarterly earnings per share of $0.59, beating estimates and showing a 3.2% revenue increase compared to the same quarter last year.
• Insider trading activity saw Director Greg Trojan sell 146,102 shares, representing an 88.01% decrease in his holdings, highlighting significant insider movements within the company.

Cerity Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 16,645 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $570,000. Cerity Partners LLC owned about 0.07% of BJ's Restaurants as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in BJ's Restaurants by 12.8% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 699,434 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $24,575,000 after buying an additional 79,512 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in BJ's Restaurants by 23.2% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 33,606 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $1,181,000 after buying an additional 6,322 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in BJ's Restaurants during the fourth quarter worth $108,000. Integrated Quantitative Investments LLC acquired a new stake in BJ's Restaurants in the fourth quarter worth $418,000. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its holdings in BJ's Restaurants by 8.9% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 33,417 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $1,174,000 after purchasing an additional 2,743 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.95% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $33.00 price target on shares of BJ's Restaurants and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays raised their price target on shares of BJ's Restaurants from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of BJ's Restaurants from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, July 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BJ's Restaurants has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $38.00.

BJ's Restaurants Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ BJRI traded down $0.28 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $37.67. 72,189 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 408,944. The stock has a market cap of $833.22 million, a P/E ratio of 40.07, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.56. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $43.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.13. BJ's Restaurants, Inc. has a 1-year low of $27.61 and a 1-year high of $47.02. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.20. BJ's Restaurants had a net margin of 1.64% and a return on equity of 10.35%. The firm had revenue of $347.97 million during 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 business's revenue was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that BJ's Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other BJ's Restaurants news, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 3,738 shares of BJ's Restaurants stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.32, for a total value of $165,668.16. Following the sale, the insider owned 4,579 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $202,941.28. The trade was a 44.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Greg Trojan sold 146,102 shares of BJ's Restaurants stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The stock was 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 directly owned 19,896 shares in the company, valued at approximately $887,958.48. This represents a 88.01% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.90% of the stock is currently owned by 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.