BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Short Interest Update

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,810,000 shares, a growth of 19.1% from the April 30th total of 1,520,000 shares. Approximately 9.0% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 447,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.0 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $33.00 price target on shares of BJ’s Restaurants and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Wedbush boosted their price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $37.20.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Down 0.1%

BJRI opened at $44.94 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $993.89 million, a P/E ratio of 66.09, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.47. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $37.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.20. BJ’s Restaurants has a 52 week low of $27.61 and a 52 week high of $45.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $347.97 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $347.70 million. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 1.23% and a return on equity of 8.76%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.32 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Greg Trojan sold 146,102 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.63, for a total transaction of $6,520,532.26. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 19,896 shares in the company, valued at approximately $887,958.48. This represents a 88.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 3,738 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.32, for a total value of $165,668.16. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 4,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $202,941.28. This represents a 44.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BJ’s Restaurants

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants in the 4th quarter valued at about $4,502,000. Emerald Advisers LLC increased its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 583,828 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $20,513,000 after buying an additional 14,607 shares during the last quarter. Amundi raised its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 198.2% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 11,603 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $410,000 after buying an additional 7,712 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 229,029 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $8,047,000 after buying an additional 19,239 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 45.4% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 243,267 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $8,547,000 after acquiring an additional 75,936 shares during the last quarter. 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.