Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Reduces Holdings in BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System decreased its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 11,200 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 600 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in BJ’s Restaurants were worth $365,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BJRI. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 10.3% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 15,315 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $554,000 after buying an additional 1,432 shares in the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp grew its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 2.0% in the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 20,337 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $736,000 after purchasing an additional 390 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. raised its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 21.0% during the 1st quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 296,176 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $10,716,000 after purchasing an additional 51,364 shares during the period. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System raised its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 61.5% during the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 10,499 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $380,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares during the period. Finally, CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co lifted its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 12.7% during the 1st quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 20,235 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $731,000 after purchasing an additional 2,286 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 research analysts have recently weighed in on BJRI shares. Barclays decreased their price target on BJ’s Restaurants from $35.00 to $32.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $43.00 price target on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Benchmark downgraded 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.57.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Up 6.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:BJRI opened at $36.58 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $855.24 million, a PE ratio of 29.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 2.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a current ratio of 0.35. BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. has a 52-week low of $26.25 and a 52-week high of $38.87. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $33.04 and a 200 day moving average of $33.51.

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 $0.02 by ($0.15). The firm had revenue of $325.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $324.97 million. BJ’s Restaurants had a return on equity of 7.98% and a net margin of 2.24%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.16) EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BJ’s Restaurants news, CEO C Bradford Richmond purchased 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $29.40 per share, with a total value of $73,500.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 16,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $497,007. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 4.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.