BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Short Interest Down 14.7% in February

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) saw a significant decrease in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,160,000 shares, a decrease of 14.7% from the February 13th total of 1,360,000 shares. Currently, 5.7% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 279,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.2 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 18.9% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 36,076 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,268,000 after buying an additional 5,722 shares in the last quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,050,000. ProShare Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants in the 4th quarter worth approximately $203,000. Nomura Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 23.9% in the 4th quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 837,031 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $29,409,000 after purchasing an additional 161,495 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 45.4% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 243,267 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $8,547,000 after purchasing an additional 75,936 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays lifted their price target on BJ’s Restaurants from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Gordon Haskett upgraded shares of BJ’s Restaurants from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $36.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $40.40.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of BJRI stock opened at $32.00 on Wednesday. BJ’s Restaurants has a 12 month low of $27.61 and a 12 month high of $41.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $726.98 million, a P/E ratio of 47.06, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 2.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $35.52 and its 200 day moving average is $34.85.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The restaurant operator reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $344.34 million for 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 anticipate that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current year.

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.