Wedbush Reaffirms “Outperform” Rating for BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI)

Wedbush reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) in a report published on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $40.00 price target on the restaurant operator’s stock. Wedbush also issued estimates for BJ’s Restaurants’ Q1 2025 earnings at $0.25 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $0.65 EPS and Q4 2025 earnings at $0.55 EPS.

BJRI has been the topic of a number of other reports. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $37.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, January 5th. TheStreet raised BJ’s Restaurants from a c rating to a b- rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $28.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Stephens reiterated an equal weight rating and set a $35.00 price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on BJ’s Restaurants from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $38.30.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Up 5.9 %

BJRI opened at $34.68 on Wednesday. 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 company has a market cap of $810.82 million, a PE ratio of 41.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 2.12. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $34.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $32.66. BJ’s Restaurants has a 52 week low of $21.64 and a 52 week high of $38.76.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The restaurant operator reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.17. BJ’s Restaurants had a return on equity of 5.45% and a net margin of 1.47%. The firm had revenue of $337.33 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $335.35 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.15 earnings per share. BJ’s Restaurants’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that BJ’s Restaurants will post 1.22 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at BJ’s Restaurants

In related news, VP Alex Puchner sold 7,713 shares of the company’s 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 $467,491.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other BJ’s Restaurants news, VP Alex Puchner sold 7,713 shares of BJ’s Restaurants stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.25, for a total transaction of $295,022.25. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 12,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $467,491.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Fund 1 Investments, Llc sold 242,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The stock was 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 directly 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.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BJ’s Restaurants

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,595,522 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $60,891,000 after purchasing an additional 8,763 shares during the last quarter. RK Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. RK Capital Management LLC now owns 341,600 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $12,301,000 after buying an additional 12,500 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 327,259 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $11,785,000 after buying an additional 4,163 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by 15.9% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 271,651 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $6,373,000 after buying an additional 37,173 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 14.8% in the 4th quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 199,624 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $7,188,000 after acquiring an additional 25,796 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

BJ’s Restaurants Company Profile

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.