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

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,160,000 shares, a decline 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 presently 4.2 days. Approximately 5.7% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on BJRI shares. Oppenheimer cut shares of BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays lifted their price target 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. Wedbush boosted their target price on BJ’s Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $40.40.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BJ’s Restaurants

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 10,774 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $379,000 after buying an additional 342 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 23.5% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,902 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $67,000 after acquiring an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 11.4% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 6,760 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $220,000 after acquiring an additional 693 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP raised its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 764.9% in the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 813 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 719 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,176 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $709,000 after purchasing an additional 1,486 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Up 4.4 %

Shares of BJRI opened at $33.91 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $34.82. BJ’s Restaurants has a 1 year low of $27.61 and a 1 year high of $41.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $770.37 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 2.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.04 and a quick ratio of 0.28.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The restaurant operator reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 company had revenue of $344.34 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $336.48 million. As a group, equities analysts expect that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.