BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Reaches New 52-Week High Following Better-Than-Expected Earnings

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Friday after the company announced better than expected quarterly earnings. The company traded as high as $41.72 and last traded at $38.46, with a volume of 70230 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $35.74.

The restaurant operator reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.12. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 2.24% and a return on equity of 7.98%. The firm had revenue of $344.34 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $336.48 million.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BJRI has been the topic of several analyst reports. Gordon Haskett raised shares of BJ’s Restaurants from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $36.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Wedbush lifted their target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. 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 research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer downgraded shares of BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $40.40.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BJRI. Nomura Holdings Inc. increased its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 23.9% during 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. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 147.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 259,977 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $9,134,000 after purchasing an additional 155,109 shares during the period. Verition Fund Management LLC increased its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 528.9% during the 3rd quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 155,383 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $5,059,000 after purchasing an additional 130,676 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in BJ’s Restaurants during the 4th quarter valued at $4,502,000. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in BJ’s Restaurants during the 3rd quarter valued at $4,310,000. 99.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Up 6.6 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $869.21 million, a PE ratio of 30.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 2.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a current ratio of 0.35. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $34.16.

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.