BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.17 EPS

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The restaurant operator reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.17, Briefing.com reports. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 1.80% and a return on equity of 6.56%. The company had revenue of $337.33 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $335.35 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.15 EPS. BJ’s Restaurants’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Up 5.9 %

BJRI opened at $34.68 on Friday. BJ’s Restaurants has a twelve month low of $21.64 and a twelve month high of $38.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $34.52 and a 200-day moving average price of $32.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $810.82 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.68, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 2.12.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Alex Puchner sold 7,713 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.25, for a total transaction of $295,022.25. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 12,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $467,491.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, VP Alex Puchner sold 7,713 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.25, for a total value of $295,022.25. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 12,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $467,491.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Fund 1 Investments, Llc sold 242,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.53, for a total value of $8,598,260.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 2,326,476 shares in the company, valued at $82,659,692.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $35.00 price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research note on Friday, February 16th. TheStreet raised shares of BJ’s Restaurants from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $37.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 5th. Citigroup lifted their price target on BJ’s Restaurants from $28.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BJ’s Restaurants presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.30.

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. The company was formerly known as Chicago Pizza & Brewery, Inc and changed its name to BJ's Restaurants, Inc in August 2004.