BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Short Interest Down 6.3% in December

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,490,000 shares, a decline of 6.3% from the December 15th total of 1,590,000 shares. Currently, 7.2% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 288,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.2 days.

Insider Transactions at BJ’s Restaurants

In related news, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 2,313 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.60, for a total value of $82,342.80. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,339 shares in the company, valued at $190,068.40. The trade was a 30.23 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 4.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BJ’s Restaurants

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Quarry LP lifted its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 764.9% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 813 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 719 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 142.9% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,540 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 906 shares during the period. Walleye Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the 3rd quarter valued at about $216,000. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the 3rd quarter valued at about $219,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 11.4% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 6,760 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $220,000 after acquiring an additional 693 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on BJRI. Gordon Haskett upgraded shares of BJ’s Restaurants from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $36.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler increased their target price 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. Oppenheimer cut BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays lifted their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $43.00 target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research note on Friday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, BJ’s Restaurants presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.00.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Up 0.8 %

BJ’s Restaurants stock opened at $34.30 on Monday. BJ’s Restaurants has a 52-week low of $27.61 and a 52-week high of $38.87. The company has a market cap of $782.62 million, a P/E ratio of 27.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 2.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $33.94.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last announced its 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). BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 2.24% and a return on equity of 7.98%. The business had revenue of $325.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $324.97 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.16) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.26 EPS 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.