BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Shares Gap Down – Time to Sell?

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $36.65, but opened at $35.36. BJ’s Restaurants shares last traded at $36.44, with a volume of 24,961 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BJRI shares. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $43.00 price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays dropped their target price on BJ’s Restaurants from $35.00 to $32.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Oppenheimer cut BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BJ’s Restaurants has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.00.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Performance

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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $33.97. The stock has a market cap of $809.32 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 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 for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by ($0.15). The company had revenue of $325.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $324.97 million. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 2.24% and a return on equity of 7.98%. The business’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.16) earnings per share. Analysts forecast that BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 2,313 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.60, for a total value of $82,342.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,339 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $190,068.40. This represents a 30.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 4.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of BJRI. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 11.4% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 6,760 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $220,000 after acquiring an additional 693 shares during the period. Quarry LP raised its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 764.9% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 813 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 719 shares during the last quarter. ClariVest Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. ClariVest Asset Management LLC now owns 29,089 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,009,000 after purchasing an additional 780 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE increased 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 buying an additional 906 shares during the period. Finally, WINTON GROUP Ltd raised its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 3.7% during the second quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 29,499 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,024,000 after buying an additional 1,058 shares during the last quarter. 99.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.