BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Stock Price Down 6.6% – Time to Sell?

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) shares traded down 6.6% on Monday . The company traded as low as $32.39 and last traded at $32.39. 114,965 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 71% from the average session volume of 393,589 shares. The stock had previously closed at $34.68.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on BJRI shares. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $43.00 price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays dropped their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Benchmark downgraded BJ’s Restaurants from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.63.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market cap of $771.87 million, a P/E ratio of 33.01, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 2.12. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $30.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $33.34.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The restaurant operator reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.21. BJ’s Restaurants had a return on equity of 7.83% and a net margin of 2.19%. The business had revenue of $349.93 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $349.18 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.50 EPS. BJ’s Restaurants’s revenue for the quarter was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.42 earnings per share 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 company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $29.40 per share, for a total transaction of $73,500.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 16,905 shares in the company, valued at approximately $497,007. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 4.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of BJ’s Restaurants

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 27.5% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 529,116 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $18,360,000 after buying an additional 114,008 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 2.0% in the second quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 302,152 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $10,485,000 after acquiring an additional 5,976 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 6.2% in the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 142,622 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $4,949,000 after acquiring an additional 8,323 shares during the period. Verition Fund Management LLC grew its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 298.7% in the fourth quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 141,556 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $5,097,000 after acquiring an additional 106,054 shares during the period. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants in the second quarter valued at approximately $3,250,000. 99.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.