Raymond James Financial Inc. Purchases Shares of 128,131 BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)

Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 128,131 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $4,502,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned about 0.56% of BJ's Restaurants at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. US Bancorp DE grew its stake in BJ's Restaurants by 23.5% in the 4th 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 during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 valued at $3,894,000 after buying an additional 1,752 shares during the period. Cibc World Markets Corp grew its position in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 126,771 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $4,454,000 after purchasing an additional 1,771 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in BJ's Restaurants by 7.2% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its stake 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 valued at $1,174,000 after purchasing an additional 2,743 shares in the last quarter. 99.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on BJRI shares. Oppenheimer cut BJ's Restaurants from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays dropped their price target on BJ's Restaurants from $37.00 to $31.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wedbush upped their target price on BJ's Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Gordon Haskett raised shares of BJ's Restaurants from an "underperform" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $36.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $39.20.

BJ's Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of BJRI stock traded up $0.11 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $33.40. The company had a trading volume of 53,821 shares, compared to its average volume of 323,672. The firm has a market cap of $745.27 million, a PE ratio of 49.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.78. BJ's Restaurants, Inc. has a one year low of $27.61 and a one year high of $41.72. 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 business has a fifty day moving average price of $33.93 and a 200-day moving average price of $35.12.

BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The restaurant operator reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $344.34 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $336.48 million. BJ's Restaurants had a net margin of 1.23% and a return on equity of 8.76%. Sell-side analysts predict that BJ's Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.