Short Interest in BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) Decreases By 14.7%

BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,160,000 shares, a drop of 14.7% from the February 13th total of 1,360,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 279,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.2 days. Currently, 5.7% of the company's stock are short sold.

BJ's Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of BJRI traded up $0.14 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $34.05. The stock had a trading volume of 485,190 shares, compared to its average volume of 343,960. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $34.92. BJ's Restaurants has a one year low of $27.61 and a one year high of $41.72. The firm has a market cap of $773.55 million, a PE ratio of 50.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 2.10. 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 - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The restaurant operator reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $344.34 million during 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that BJ's Restaurants will post 1.5 EPS for the current year.

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Institutional Trading of BJ's Restaurants

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Quarry LP lifted its stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 764.9% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 813 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 719 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 23.5% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,902 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $67,000 after buying an additional 362 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants during the 4th quarter worth about $108,000. Arizona State Retirement System acquired a new stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants during the 4th quarter worth about $200,000. Finally, Two Sigma Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BJ's Restaurants during the 4th quarter worth about $201,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.95% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of BJ's Restaurants from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Gordon Haskett raised shares of BJ's Restaurants from an "underperform" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $36.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Wedbush raised their target price on shares of BJ's Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of BJ's Restaurants from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $40.40.

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.