Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust Sells 45,239 Shares of BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)

Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust decreased its position in BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) by 12.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 318,792 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 45,239 shares during the period. Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust’s holdings in BJ’s Restaurants were worth $11,201,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BJRI. US Bancorp DE grew its holdings in BJ’s Restaurants by 23.5% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,902 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants in the fourth quarter valued at about $108,000. Arizona State Retirement System acquired a new stake in BJ’s Restaurants in the 4th quarter valued at $200,000. Two Sigma Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $201,000. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC raised its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 1,251.3% in the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 6,297 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $221,000 after purchasing an additional 5,831 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer lowered BJ’s Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays decreased their target price on BJ’s Restaurants from $37.00 to $31.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Gordon Haskett upgraded BJ’s Restaurants from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $36.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Wedbush boosted their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. One equities 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.20.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BJRI opened at $33.49 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $747.36 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.25, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.78. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $34.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $35.14. BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. has a one year low of $27.61 and a one year high of $41.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

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

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 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.