Jane Street Group LLC Sells 51,125 Shares of BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)

Jane Street Group LLC lessened its stake in BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI - Free Report) by 38.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 80,751 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 51,125 shares during the quarter. Jane Street Group LLC owned about 0.35% of BJ's Restaurants worth $2,837,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BJRI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in BJ's Restaurants by 7.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 27,284 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $888,000 after acquiring an additional 1,823 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in BJ's Restaurants by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 110,833 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $3,894,000 after buying an additional 1,752 shares in the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC raised its position in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 110,895 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $3,896,000 after purchasing an additional 3,835 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of BJ's Restaurants in the fourth quarter worth approximately $574,000. Finally, US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings 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 valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. 99.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Greg Trojan sold 146,102 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.63, for a total value of $6,520,532.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,896 shares in the company, valued at approximately $887,958.48. This represents a 88.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 3,738 shares of BJ's Restaurants 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 4,579 shares in the company, valued at $202,941.28. This trade represents a 44.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 4.30% of the company's stock.

BJ's Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of BJRI stock traded up $0.11 on Tuesday, hitting $42.93. The company's stock had a trading volume of 66,617 shares, compared to its average volume of 367,536. The company has a market capitalization of $949.44 million, a PE ratio of 62.93, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.47. BJ's Restaurants, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.61 and a fifty-two week high of $45.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a current ratio of 0.04. The stock's 50 day moving average is $34.93 and its 200-day moving average is $35.53.

BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) last announced 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. BJ's Restaurants had a net margin of 1.23% and a return on equity of 8.76%. The company had revenue of $347.97 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $347.70 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.32 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that BJ's Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on BJRI shares. Barclays boosted their price target on BJ's Restaurants from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $33.00 price target on shares of BJ's Restaurants and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Wedbush upped 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 equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $37.20.

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.