A fundamentals-focused review of BJ's Restaurants stock ahead of its quarterly earnings report
BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ: BJRI) owns and operates a chain of casual dining restaurants in the United States. Its restaurants offer pizzas, craft beers, as well as entrees like pastas and sandwiches. BJRI operates more than 200 casual dining restaurants in 28 states. Some locations feature microbreweries that supply beer to other locations in the chain. The company operates under the names BJ's Restaurant & Brewery, BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse, BJ's Grill, and BJ's Pizza & Grill.
Yesterday BJ’s Restaurants announced that it would release its fourth-quarter and 2020 fiscal year results after the market closes on Thursday, February 11. The company said it will also host an online investor conference call the same day. BJRI is expected to report a decrease in earnings for the fourth quarter of 2020. Analysts project the company to come in with an earnings per share (EPS) of -$0.63. BJ’s Restaurants has remained unprofitable every quarter since the fourth quarter of 2019.
Despite this recent drop into quarterly losses, BJ’s Restaurants has beat expectations on three of its last four quarters. For the fourth quarter of 2019 BJRI beat analysts’ expectations by a margin of $0.05 and reported earnings of $0.50 per share. For the first quarter of 2020, BJ’s Restaurants reported a decrease in its EPS down to -$0.22 and missed expectations by a margin of $0.08. BJRI reported yet another drop in EPS again in the second quarter of 2020, reporting -$0.99 per share. However, the company surpassed expectations by a huge margin of $0.96. In its most recent quarterly earnings report, BJ’s Restaurants reported an increased EPS to -$0.44 and beat earnings expectations by a margin of $0.28.
It looks like investors are somewhat optimistic on BJRI ahead of its earnings even, though. In 2021, BJ’s Restaurants stock has already gained 23% year-to-date. BJ’s Restaurants stock is also up a massive 690% from its 17-year low of $6.01. It should be noted that BJRI recently hit its highest level in nearly two years on Jan. 20, coming in at $49.49.
From a fundamental point of view, BJ’s Restaurants stock is not looking promising at its current value. Although the equity is pricing in a full recovery, BJ’s Restaurants itself is still down about $300 million in revenue and $70 million in net income since 2019. In total, BJRI has posted $25 million in net losses over the past 12 months. BJ’s Restaurants is still far from where it stood pre-pandemic, despite its recent stock gains.