BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Given New $32.00 Price Target at Barclays

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) had its target price reduced by investment analysts at Barclays from $35.00 to $32.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “underweight” rating on the restaurant operator’s stock. Barclays‘s price objective would indicate a potential downside of 5.85% from the company’s current price.

BJRI has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $43.00 target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a report on Friday. Benchmark cut shares of BJ’s Restaurants from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.00.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BJRI opened at $33.99 on Friday. BJ’s Restaurants has a 1 year low of $26.25 and a 1 year high of $38.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $794.69 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 2.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 0.35 and a quick ratio of 0.27. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $32.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.45.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The restaurant operator reported ($0.13) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.03 by ($0.16). BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 2.19% and a return on equity of 7.83%. The business had revenue of $325.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $324.97 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.16) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at BJ’s Restaurants

In other BJ’s Restaurants news, CEO C Bradford Richmond bought 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $29.40 per share, for a total transaction of $73,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 16,905 shares in the company, valued at approximately $497,007. This represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 4.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BJ’s Restaurants

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BJRI. Olympiad Research LP bought a new position in BJ’s Restaurants during the 3rd quarter worth $469,000. Emerald Advisers LLC increased its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 0.7% in the third quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 569,221 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $18,534,000 after buying an additional 4,009 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE raised its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 142.9% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,540 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $50,000 after acquiring an additional 906 shares during the last quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 15.0% in the third quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 34,097 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,110,000 after acquiring an additional 4,440 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants in the third quarter valued at approximately $500,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

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.