Wedbush Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Stock

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) had its price target lifted by equities research analysts at Wedbush from $43.00 to $48.00 in a report released on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the restaurant operator’s stock. Wedbush’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 26.02% from the stock’s previous close. Wedbush also issued estimates for BJ’s Restaurants’ Q1 2025 earnings at $0.35 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $0.73 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $1.74 EPS and Q1 2026 earnings at $0.49 EPS.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Piper Sandler increased their price target on BJ’s Restaurants from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Gordon Haskett raised BJ’s Restaurants from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $36.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Oppenheimer lowered BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on BJ’s Restaurants from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $40.40.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Up 6.6 %

Shares of BJRI opened at $38.09 on Friday. BJ’s Restaurants has a 52 week low of $27.61 and a 52 week high of $41.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $869.10 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.01, a PEG ratio of 1.73 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 has a fifty day moving average of $35.57 and a 200-day moving average of $34.19.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The restaurant operator reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.12. BJ’s Restaurants had a return on equity of 8.70% and a net margin of 1.23%. The company had revenue of $344.34 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $336.48 million. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. New York State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 15.0% in the 3rd quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 34,097 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,110,000 after acquiring an additional 4,440 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 142.9% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,540 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $50,000 after acquiring an additional 906 shares in the last quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC raised its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 569,221 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $18,534,000 after acquiring an additional 4,009 shares in the last quarter. Olympiad Research LP bought a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants in the 3rd quarter worth about $469,000. Finally, Aigen Investment Management LP bought a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants in the 3rd quarter worth about $323,000. 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.