BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Stock Price Breaks Above 50 Day Moving Average – What’s Next?

Shares of BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) passed above its fifty day moving average during trading on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $60.82 and traded as high as $63.79. BJ’s Restaurants shares last traded at $63.28, with a volume of 477,956 shares trading hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on BJRI shares. Mizuho raised BJ’s Restaurants from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $74.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 1st. Benchmark upped their price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. William Blair raised BJ’s Restaurants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th. DA Davidson set a $65.00 target price on BJ’s Restaurants in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of BJ’s Restaurants from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 15th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.00.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Down 1.2%

The company has a market capitalization of $1.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.33. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $60.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $50.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.29 and a quick ratio of 0.22.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.04. BJ’s Restaurants had a return on equity of 12.93% and a net margin of 2.86%. The company had revenue of $388.89 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $377.07 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.97 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. will post 2.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at BJ’s Restaurants

In other BJ’s Restaurants news, EVP Gregory S. Lynds sold 25,350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.47, for a total value of $1,710,364.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 46,474 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,135,600.78. The trade was a 35.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director C Richmond purchased 753 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 31st. The stock was bought at an average price of $63.25 per share, for a total transaction of $47,627.25. Following the acquisition, the director owned 35,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,245,375. This represents a 2.17% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 67,784 shares of company stock valued at $4,648,326 over the last ninety days. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BJRI. Signaturefd LLC grew its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 34.8% in the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 774 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in BJ’s Restaurants during the second quarter worth $28,000. Bard Associates Inc. bought a new position in BJ’s Restaurants during the second quarter valued at $30,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC bought a new position in BJ’s Restaurants during the second quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP increased its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 7.7% during the first quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 16,561 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $581,000 after acquiring an additional 1,178 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

BJ’s Restaurants Company Profile

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc (NASDAQ: BJRI) operates and develops casual dining restaurants under the BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse brand. Its restaurants offer a broad menu centered on deep-dish pizza, along with appetizers, salads, sandwiches, burgers, entrees, desserts and other American-style dishes.

The company is also known for producing and serving craft beer, including its proprietary BJ’s beers, at many of its locations. Its restaurants typically combine full-service dining with a brewery-inspired atmosphere and offer dine-in, takeout, delivery and catering services, depending on the location.

BJ’s traces its origins to 1978, when the first restaurant opened in Southern California.