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

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of 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. Based on an average trading volume of 279,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.2 days. Currently, 5.7% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BJRI has been the subject of several analyst reports. Gordon Haskett upgraded shares of BJ’s Restaurants from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $36.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. 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, February 21st. Oppenheimer cut shares of BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.40.

Institutional Trading of BJ’s Restaurants

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Nomura Holdings Inc. grew its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 23.9% during the fourth quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 837,031 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $29,409,000 after buying an additional 161,495 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 147.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 259,977 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $9,134,000 after acquiring an additional 155,109 shares during the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC grew its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 528.9% in the 3rd quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 155,383 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,059,000 after acquiring an additional 130,676 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants in the fourth quarter valued at about $4,502,000. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the third quarter valued at about $4,310,000. 99.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Down 1.9 %

NASDAQ:BJRI opened at $32.00 on Wednesday. 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 has a fifty day simple moving average of $35.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $34.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $726.98 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.06, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 2.10. BJ’s Restaurants has a 12 month low of $27.61 and a 12 month high of $41.72.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 8.76% and a net margin of 1.23%. The firm had revenue of $344.34 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $336.48 million. Analysts expect that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.