William Blair Has Optimistic Outlook of BJRI FY2024 Earnings

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) – Investment analysts at William Blair boosted their FY2024 earnings estimates for BJ’s Restaurants in a research note issued on Monday, January 20th. William Blair analyst S. Zackfia now anticipates that the restaurant operator will post earnings per share of $1.25 for the year, up from their prior estimate of $1.23. The consensus estimate for BJ’s Restaurants’ current full-year earnings is $1.26 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for BJ’s Restaurants’ Q4 2024 earnings at $0.34 EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at $0.54 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $1.45 EPS.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on BJRI. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Gordon Haskett upgraded shares of BJ’s Restaurants from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $36.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $43.00 target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Barclays upped their price target on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer downgraded shares of BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.00.

BJ’s Restaurants Price Performance

Shares of BJRI opened at $35.13 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $35.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.93. BJ’s Restaurants has a 1-year low of $27.61 and a 1-year high of $38.87. The company has a market cap of $801.67 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.10, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 2.10.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The restaurant operator reported ($0.13) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by ($0.15). BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 2.24% and a return on equity of 7.98%. The company had revenue of $325.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $324.97 million. BJ’s Restaurants’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.16) EPS.

Insider Buying and Selling at BJ’s Restaurants

In related news, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 2,313 shares of BJ’s Restaurants stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.60, for a total transaction of $82,342.80. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,339 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $190,068.40. The trade was a 30.23 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 4.90% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BJ’s Restaurants

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BJRI. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. increased its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 75.9% in the third quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 82,800 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,696,000 after buying an additional 35,722 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $4,310,000. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd acquired a new position in BJ’s Restaurants in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $2,064,000. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the third quarter valued at $500,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 111.3% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 46,329 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,608,000 after purchasing an additional 24,400 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

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.