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BJ's Restaurants (BJRI) Launches New Outlet in Indiana
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BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (BJRI - Free Report) announced the opening of its latest restaurant in Bloomington, IN, on Jun 12. This 7,500 square feet restaurant is located on a free standing pad on an out parcel at College Mall and can accommodate nearly 230 guests.
The outlet features BJ’s Restaurants’ extensive menu, including its signature deep-dish pizza, award-winning hand-crafted beer and the famous Pizookie dessert. In addition, BJ’s Restaurants' unique contemporary décor creates an ideal environment for dining.
In fact, this new outlet marks the brand’s fifth restaurant in the state of Indiana. Currently, the company operates 193 casual dining restaurants across 24 states in the U.S., under its brand names – BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewery, BJ’s Pizza & Grill and BJ’s Grill.
The company has opened six new restaurants year to date and is slated to open four more this year. The next opening is scheduled to be in Fredericksburg, VA, at the end of this month.
It is to be noted that BJ’s Restaurants has reduced the number of planned restaurant openings to 10 in 2017 compared with 17 restaurant openings in 2016. This is because it continues to believe that the sales headwinds in the industry call for greater focus on traffic and sales building initiatives.
However, the slowdown in company’s 2017 development plan may somewhat dent sales growth. Also, continued weakening consumer spending in the restaurant space, might hamper the company’s traffic and sales.
Furthermore, we note that while several other restaurateurs including Yum! Brands, Inc. (YUM - Free Report) , McDonalds Corporation (MCD - Free Report) and Papa John’s International, Inc. (PZZA - Free Report) are capitalizing on the emerging market potential, BJ’s Restaurants loses out in terms of international presence.
Shares of the company have also underperformed the Zacks categorized Retail-Restaurants industry in the past six months. While the industry added nearly 8.8%, the company’s stock gained just 4.5%.
Nevertheless, going forward, the four strategic sales-building initiatives undertaken by the company to navigate through the challenging macro environment are likely to boost sales. A deep pipeline of new menu items, loyalty program enhancements and other productivity as well as technology-driven initiatives are also expected to drive performance further.
Moreover, the company’s decision to slow down new openings for some time and instead focus even more of its enterprise resources on building sales may turn out to be favorable as it would provide some margin momentum and boost free cash flow. When combined with the company’s conservative balance sheet, these measures should provide more flexibility for sales building capital and share repurchases, going forward.
Before looking into the stocks mentioned above, you may want to get a head start on potential tech IPOs that are popping up on Zacks' radar. Imagine being in the first wave of investors to jump on a company with almost unlimited growth potential? This Special Report gives you the current scoop on 5 that may go public at any time.
Image: Bigstock
BJ's Restaurants (BJRI) Launches New Outlet in Indiana
BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (BJRI - Free Report) announced the opening of its latest restaurant in Bloomington, IN, on Jun 12. This 7,500 square feet restaurant is located on a free standing pad on an out parcel at College Mall and can accommodate nearly 230 guests.
The outlet features BJ’s Restaurants’ extensive menu, including its signature deep-dish pizza, award-winning hand-crafted beer and the famous Pizookie dessert. In addition, BJ’s Restaurants' unique contemporary décor creates an ideal environment for dining.
In fact, this new outlet marks the brand’s fifth restaurant in the state of Indiana. Currently, the company operates 193 casual dining restaurants across 24 states in the U.S., under its brand names – BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewery, BJ’s Pizza & Grill and BJ’s Grill.
The company has opened six new restaurants year to date and is slated to open four more this year. The next opening is scheduled to be in Fredericksburg, VA, at the end of this month.
It is to be noted that BJ’s Restaurants has reduced the number of planned restaurant openings to 10 in 2017 compared with 17 restaurant openings in 2016. This is because it continues to believe that the sales headwinds in the industry call for greater focus on traffic and sales building initiatives.
However, the slowdown in company’s 2017 development plan may somewhat dent sales growth. Also, continued weakening consumer spending in the restaurant space, might hamper the company’s traffic and sales.
Furthermore, we note that while several other restaurateurs including Yum! Brands, Inc. (YUM - Free Report) , McDonalds Corporation (MCD - Free Report) and Papa John’s International, Inc. (PZZA - Free Report) are capitalizing on the emerging market potential, BJ’s Restaurants loses out in terms of international presence.
Shares of the company have also underperformed the Zacks categorized Retail-Restaurants industry in the past six months. While the industry added nearly 8.8%, the company’s stock gained just 4.5%.
Nevertheless, going forward, the four strategic sales-building initiatives undertaken by the company to navigate through the challenging macro environment are likely to boost sales. A deep pipeline of new menu items, loyalty program enhancements and other productivity as well as technology-driven initiatives are also expected to drive performance further.
Moreover, the company’s decision to slow down new openings for some time and instead focus even more of its enterprise resources on building sales may turn out to be favorable as it would provide some margin momentum and boost free cash flow. When combined with the company’s conservative balance sheet, these measures should provide more flexibility for sales building capital and share repurchases, going forward.
BJ’s Restaurants currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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One has driven from 0 to a $68 billion valuation in 8 years. Four others are a little less obvious but already show jaw-dropping growth. Download this IPO Watch List today for free >>