BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Shares Gap Up on Strong Earnings

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) gapped up before the market opened on Friday after the company announced better than expected quarterly earnings. The stock had previously closed at $33.49, but opened at $35.58. BJ’s Restaurants shares last traded at $36.85, with a volume of 290,057 shares trading hands.

The restaurant operator reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.32 earnings per share. BJ’s Restaurants’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on BJRI. Gordon Haskett raised shares of BJ’s Restaurants from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $36.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Oppenheimer lowered shares of BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Wedbush boosted 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.25.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BJ’s Restaurants

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BJRI. US Bancorp DE boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants in the first quarter valued at $97,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the 4th quarter worth $108,000. Arizona State Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the 4th quarter worth $200,000. Finally, Two Sigma Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants in the 4th quarter valued at about $201,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

BJ’s Restaurants Price Performance

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 fifty day moving average price is $33.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $35.15. The firm has a market cap of $846.00 million, a PE ratio of 55.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.78.

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.