BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Rating Lowered to "Hold" at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded BJ's Restaurants from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report issued to investors.
• Despite the downgrade, Benchmark and Piper Sandler raised their price targets for the stock, indicating some mixed analyst sentiment.
• BJ's Restaurants reported earnings beat of $0.97 EPS, surpassing analysts' expectations, and a 4.5% increase in revenue year-over-year.

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI - Free Report) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Sunday.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on BJRI. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of BJ's Restaurants from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Benchmark raised shares of BJ's Restaurants from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $44.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of BJ's Restaurants from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $39.67.

BJ's Restaurants Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BJRI traded up $0.26 during trading on Friday, hitting $30.37. The company had a trading volume of 117,674 shares, compared to its average volume of 453,046. The company has a market cap of $671.74 million, a P/E ratio of 25.52, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.37. BJ's Restaurants has a 52 week low of $28.92 and a 52 week high of $47.02. The business's 50-day moving average is $34.76 and its 200 day moving average is $37.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a current ratio of 0.38.

BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The restaurant operator reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.28. BJ's Restaurants had a return on equity of 11.73% and a net margin of 1.99%.The company had revenue of $365.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $362.74 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.72 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that BJ's Restaurants will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at BJ's Restaurants

In other news, SVP Heidi Rogers sold 4,116 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.36, for a total transaction of $145,541.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 7,144 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $252,611.84. This represents a 36.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Alex Puchner sold 1,821 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.06, for a total transaction of $62,023.26. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 10,622 shares of the company's stock, valued at $361,785.32. This represents a 14.63% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 15,458 shares of company stock worth $545,656 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 4.90% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BJ's Restaurants

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of BJRI. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in BJ's Restaurants in the first quarter worth $69,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new stake in BJ's Restaurants in the first quarter worth $97,000. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. raised its holdings in BJ's Restaurants by 18.0% in the second quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 2,189 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $98,000 after purchasing an additional 334 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in BJ's Restaurants by 51.8% in the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 2,887 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $99,000 after purchasing an additional 985 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in BJ's Restaurants by 77.5% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,317 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $103,000 after purchasing an additional 1,012 shares during the period. 99.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.