BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Short Interest Update

BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) saw a significant decline in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,490,000 shares, a decline of 6.3% from the December 15th 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. Currently, 7.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Insider Transactions at BJ's Restaurants

In other news, insider Brian S. Krakower sold 2,313 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.60, for a total value of $82,342.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,339 shares in the company, valued at approximately $190,068.40. The trade was a 30.23 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 4.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of BJ's Restaurants

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. 272 Capital LP bought a new stake in BJ's Restaurants in the 2nd quarter worth about $1,173,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. boosted its holdings in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 75.9% during the 3rd quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 82,800 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $2,696,000 after acquiring an additional 35,722 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants in the third quarter worth approximately $4,310,000. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd bought a new stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants in the third quarter worth approximately $2,064,000. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of BJ's Restaurants during the third quarter valued at approximately $500,000. 99.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on BJRI. Barclays lifted their price objective on BJ's Restaurants from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on BJ's Restaurants from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Gordon Haskett upgraded 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. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of BJ's Restaurants from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $43.00 price target on shares of BJ's Restaurants in a report on Friday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $38.00.

BJ's Restaurants Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ BJRI traded up $0.28 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $34.30. 182,835 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 237,823. The company has a market cap of $782.73 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.44, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 2.10. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $35.75 and a 200-day moving average price of $33.97. BJ's Restaurants has a 52 week low of $27.61 and a 52 week high of $38.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a current ratio of 0.35.

BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The restaurant operator reported ($0.13) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.02 by ($0.15). BJ's Restaurants had a net margin of 2.24% and a return on equity of 7.98%. The business had revenue of $325.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $324.97 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.16) EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that BJ's Restaurants will post 1.26 EPS for the current year.

About BJ's Restaurants

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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