Woodline Partners LP Sells 19,789 Shares of BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)

Woodline Partners LP cut its stake in BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI - Free Report) by 5.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 361,834 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 19,789 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP owned 1.59% of BJ's Restaurants worth $12,713,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. ProShare Advisors LLC bought a new stake in BJ's Restaurants in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $203,000. Nomura Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in BJ's Restaurants by 23.9% in the fourth quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 837,031 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $29,409,000 after acquiring an additional 161,495 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in BJ's Restaurants by 45.4% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 243,267 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $8,547,000 after acquiring an additional 75,936 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its holdings in BJ's Restaurants by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 10,774 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $379,000 after acquiring an additional 342 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. bought a new stake in BJ's Restaurants in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,157,000. 99.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

BJ's Restaurants Price Performance

BJ's Restaurants stock opened at $41.57 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $919.36 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.13, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.47. BJ's Restaurants, Inc. has a 52-week low of $27.61 and a 52-week high of $45.22. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $35.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $35.61. 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 results on Thursday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $347.97 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $347.70 million. BJ's Restaurants had a return on equity of 8.76% and a net margin of 1.23%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.32 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that BJ's Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Greg Trojan sold 146,102 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 19,896 shares of the company's stock, valued at $887,958.48. This represents a 88.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 3,738 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.32, for a total value of $165,668.16. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 4,579 shares in the company, valued at $202,941.28. The trade was a 44.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 4.90% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Wedbush upped their target price on BJ's Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $33.00 target price on BJ's Restaurants and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Barclays increased their price target 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 issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $37.20.

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.

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