Insider Selling: BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Insider Sells $165,668.16 in Stock

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) insider Brian S. Krakower sold 3,738 shares of BJ’s Restaurants stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.32, for a total value of $165,668.16. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 4,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $202,941.28. The trade was a 44.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Up 0.0%

BJ’s Restaurants stock opened at $44.83 on Friday. BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. has a 12 month low of $27.61 and a 12 month high of $45.22. The firm has a market cap of $991.46 million, a PE ratio of 65.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a current ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $34.75 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $35.47.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $347.97 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $347.70 million. BJ’s Restaurants had a return on equity of 8.76% and a net margin of 1.23%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.32 EPS. Analysts anticipate that BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of BJ’s Restaurants

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the 4th quarter worth about $4,502,000. Emerald Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 583,828 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $20,513,000 after acquiring an additional 14,607 shares during the period. Amundi raised its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 198.2% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 11,603 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $410,000 after purchasing an additional 7,712 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 147.9% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 259,977 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $9,134,000 after purchasing an additional 155,109 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in BJ’s Restaurants in the fourth quarter worth $574,000. 99.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wedbush lifted their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $33.00 price objective on shares of BJ’s Restaurants and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on BJ’s Restaurants from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $37.20.

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.