BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) saw a large decrease in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,320,000 shares, a decrease of 6.4% from the January 15th total of 1,410,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 245,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.4 days. Currently, 6.5% of the company's stock are sold short.

Institutional Trading of BJ's Restaurants

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BJRI. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in BJ's Restaurants by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,242,137 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $43,642,000 after purchasing an additional 78,852 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. boosted its position in BJ's Restaurants by 23.9% during the fourth quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 837,031 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $29,409,000 after purchasing an additional 161,495 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in BJ's Restaurants by 12.8% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 699,434 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $24,575,000 after purchasing an additional 79,512 shares in the last quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC boosted its position in BJ's Restaurants by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 583,828 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $20,513,000 after purchasing an additional 14,607 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in BJ's Restaurants by 1.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 493,006 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $16,056,000 after purchasing an additional 5,075 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.95% of the company's stock.

BJ's Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of BJRI traded down $0.13 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $35.74. The company had a trading volume of 369,306 shares, compared to its average volume of 236,152. BJ's Restaurants has a 52-week low of $27.61 and a 52-week high of $38.87. The company has a quick ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $815.59 million, a P/E ratio of 28.59, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 2.11. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $35.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $34.09.

BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The restaurant operator reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.12. BJ's Restaurants had a return on equity of 7.98% and a net margin of 2.24%. On average, analysts expect that BJ's Restaurants will post 1.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Gordon Haskett raised BJ's Restaurants from an "underperform" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $36.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler boosted 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. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $43.00 price target on shares of BJ's Restaurants in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Barclays boosted their price target on BJ's Restaurants from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer downgraded BJ's Restaurants from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BJ's Restaurants presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $38.80.

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.