BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Short Interest Down 6.3% in January

BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) saw a large decline in short interest during the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,490,000 shares, a decline of 6.3% from the December 31st total of 1,590,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 288,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.2 days. Approximately 7.2% of the company's shares are sold short.

BJ's Restaurants Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of BJRI traded down $0.65 on Friday, hitting $36.19. 206,305 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 191,922. BJ's Restaurants has a 1 year low of $27.61 and a 1 year high of $38.87. The stock's 50 day moving average is $35.85 and its two-hundred day moving average is $33.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $825.75 million, a P/E ratio of 28.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 2.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The restaurant operator reported ($0.13) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.02 by ($0.15). The business had revenue of $325.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $324.97 million. BJ's Restaurants had a return on equity of 7.98% and a net margin of 2.24%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.16) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that BJ's Restaurants will post 1.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at BJ's Restaurants

In other BJ's Restaurants news, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 2,313 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.60, for a total transaction of $82,342.80. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,339 shares in the company, valued at $190,068.40. This represents a 30.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 4.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of BJ's Restaurants

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 11.4% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 6,760 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $220,000 after acquiring an additional 693 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP raised its stake in BJ's Restaurants by 764.9% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 813 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 719 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 142.9% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,540 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 906 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 110,833 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $3,894,000 after purchasing an additional 1,752 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 27,284 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $888,000 after buying an additional 1,823 shares during the last quarter. 99.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on BJRI shares. Piper Sandler raised their price target on BJ's Restaurants from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Gordon Haskett raised shares of BJ's Restaurants from an "underperform" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $36.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $43.00 target price on shares of BJ's Restaurants in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Oppenheimer lowered shares of BJ's Restaurants from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of BJ's Restaurants from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $38.00.

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.

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