Emerald Advisers LLC Increases Stock Position in BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)

Emerald Advisers LLC raised its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) by 2.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 583,828 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,607 shares during the period. Emerald Advisers LLC’s holdings in BJ’s Restaurants were worth $20,513,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 12.8% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 699,434 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $24,575,000 after buying an additional 79,512 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the fourth quarter valued at $278,000. Cibc World Markets Corp increased its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 126,771 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $4,454,000 after acquiring an additional 1,771 shares in the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC increased its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 1,251.3% during the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 6,297 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $221,000 after acquiring an additional 5,831 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 198.2% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 11,603 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $410,000 after acquiring an additional 7,712 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on BJRI shares. Gordon Haskett upgraded BJ’s Restaurants from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $36.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Oppenheimer downgraded BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays raised their price target on BJ’s Restaurants from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Wedbush raised their price target on BJ’s Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.40.

BJ’s Restaurants Price Performance

NASDAQ BJRI opened at $34.05 on Friday. BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. has a one year low of $27.61 and a one year high of $41.72. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $35.43 and a 200 day moving average of $34.88. The company has a market capitalization of $773.55 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.07, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 2.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a current ratio of 0.04.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The restaurant operator reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $344.34 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $336.48 million. BJ’s Restaurants had a return on equity of 8.76% and a net margin of 1.23%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.5 EPS for the current 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.