Nomura Holdings Inc. Boosts Position in BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)

Nomura Holdings Inc. grew its position in BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI - Free Report) by 23.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 837,031 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after buying an additional 161,495 shares during the quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. owned 3.67% of BJ's Restaurants worth $29,409,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 75,936 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 342 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BJ's Restaurants in the fourth quarter valued at $1,157,000. Deutsche Bank AG increased its position in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 10.6% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 55,406 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $1,947,000 after buying an additional 5,316 shares in the last quarter. Finally, D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. increased its position in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 60.3% in the fourth quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 277,874 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $9,763,000 after buying an additional 104,490 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.95% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on BJRI. Wedbush raised their price target on 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 company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of BJ's Restaurants from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Two investment 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 data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $37.20.

Insider Transactions at BJ's Restaurants

In other news, Director Greg Trojan sold 146,102 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 19,896 shares in the company, valued at $887,958.48. This 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 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 transaction, the insider now owns 4,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. Insiders own 4.30% of the company's stock.

BJ's Restaurants Trading Up 0.0%

Shares of BJ's Restaurants stock traded up $0.01 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $44.83. 843,641 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 369,915. BJ's Restaurants, Inc. has a twelve month low of $27.61 and a twelve month high of $45.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $991.46 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $34.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $35.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) last released 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $347.70 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.32 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that BJ's Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.5 EPS for the current 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.