Emerald Advisers LLC Raises Stake in BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)

Emerald Advisers LLC raised its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) by 2.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 583,828 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,607 shares during the quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC owned approximately 2.56% of BJ’s Restaurants worth $20,513,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings 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 valued at $24,575,000 after purchasing an additional 79,512 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants during the fourth quarter valued at about $278,000. Cibc World Markets Corp increased its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 126,771 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $4,454,000 after buying an additional 1,771 shares during the period. AlphaQuest LLC increased its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 1,251.3% in the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 6,297 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $221,000 after purchasing an additional 5,831 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 198.2% in 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. 99.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

BJ’s Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of BJRI stock opened at $34.05 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $35.43 and a 200 day moving average of $34.88. BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. has a 52 week low of $27.61 and a 52 week high of $41.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $773.55 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.07, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 2.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last announced its quarterly 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 8.76% and a net margin of 1.23%. The company had revenue of $344.34 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $336.48 million. As a group, research analysts expect that BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Gordon Haskett upgraded shares of BJ’s Restaurants from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $36.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Wedbush increased their price objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Oppenheimer lowered 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 objective on BJ’s Restaurants from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average 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.