On May 11, 2023, it was reported that Russell Investments Group Ltd. has reduced its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. The institutional investor sold 46,039 shares during the period and owned 611,176 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock at the end of the most recent reporting period which was worth $16,123,000.
BJ’s Restaurants, Inc is a casual dining restaurant company operating multiple establishments including BJ’s Restaurant and Brewery, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, BJ’s Pizza and Grill or BJ’s Grill. It offers a variety of food items including pizzas, appetizers, soups, pastas, sandwiches and desserts along with proprietary craft beers.
The opening price of NASDAQ BJRI on Thursday was $30.65 while its 50-day simple moving average stood at $29.71 with its two-hundred day simple moving average being $30.48. The stock has seen a yearly low of $20.15 and a yearly high of $36.14 while maintaining a market capitalization of $721.19 million.
Additionally, it has a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.42 along with a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17 making it clear that BJ’s Restaurants’ financials are relatively healthy despite Russell Investments’ decision to reduce their position in their shares.
This reduction may be seen as concerning by some investors but it should be noted that corporations change their investment strategies often based on available information in order to stay competitive in today’s dynamic market conditions.
Overall though there is no reason for alarm regarding this news since just because an institutional investor reduces its position does not necessarily mean the company is performing poorly or experiencing negative growth trends.
It will be interesting to see if this reduction will have any noteworthy impact on the stock prices for BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. or if it will remain relatively stable in the coming months.
BJ’s Restaurants: Recent Transactions and Earnings Report
BJ’s Restaurants: A Look into Its Recent Transactions and Earnings
May 11, 2023 – BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ: BJRI) is a well-known casual dining restaurant chain that operates in the United States. The company operates several brands, including BJ’s Restaurant and Brewery, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, BJ’s Pizza and Grill or BJ’s Grill.
Recently, several institutional investors and hedge funds added to or reduced their stakes in the business. For example, Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its holdings in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 11.6% during the third quarter. Moreover, Emerald Advisers LLC boosted its holdings by 12.7% in the fourth quarter; this now values at $16,053,000 after acquiring an additional 68,369 shares during the last quarter. As for Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust, they increased their holding by 79.7% from the previous year to $10,824,000 after acquiring an additional 181,986 shares for the last quarter.
Another investor was Boothbay Fund Management LLC which acquired a new position in BJ’s Restaurants last year valued at $342,000. Finally,Dimensional Fund Advisors LP built up its stake in BJ’s Restaurants by approximately 12.9% in Q3 which now owns over $24 million worth of stock .
According to SEC filings on March 8th of this year,a corporate insider named Brian S. Krakower sold about 950 shares ofBJRI stock with average price per share being $31.08 for a total transaction value of$29,526.The insider now owns 6,129 shares ofBJRI directly with market value estimatedat around $190k . As we can see,the sale did not impact his overall stake all that much.
Apart from the transactions mentioned above ,BJ’s released its quarterly financial report recently and the results were fairly positive. The earnings report from Thursday, April 27th, showed that the restaurant operator had $0.15 EPS for Q1 2023; it beat analysts’ predicted estimates of $0.04 by $0.11.Alongside this impressive result,a remarkable improvement in revenue was observed with a year-over-year surge of 14.3%. It is also essential to note thatBJRI’s net margin sits at around just below 1%.
Variety magazine has reported that several research firms have offered their opinion on BJRI., TheStreet upgraded shares of BJ’s Restaurants from a “d+” rating to a “c-” rating earlier this year.Other analysts have given positive take on its performance as Oppenheimer set an outperform recommendation with price target raised to $40 earlier ,whereas Benchmark maintained their “buy” order coupled with a price objective sitting at $38 .
Overall, Bloomberg records that BJ’s Restaurants stock has accumulated a consensus Hold rating and an average target price of approximately $34/share . While there may be divergence amongst researchers when it comes to predictions about future growth,it seems evident investors are continuing to flock towardsBJRI- mostly due to its great financial numbers.
It goes without saying that no investment advice should be inferred from above information or decisions made as consequenceof the same text.