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

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in 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. Approximately 5.7% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Institutional Trading of BJ’s Restaurants

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

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Up 1.5 %

BJRI stock opened at $32.47 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. BJ’s Restaurants has a fifty-two week low of $27.61 and a fifty-two week high of $41.72. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $34.83. The stock has a market cap of $737.65 million, a PE ratio of 47.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 2.10.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The restaurant operator reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.12. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 1.23% and a return on equity of 8.76%. The business had revenue of $344.34 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $336.48 million. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.5 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Gordon Haskett raised 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. Barclays increased their target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Wedbush increased their target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Oppenheimer cut shares of BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $40.40.

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.