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BJ's Restaurants (BJRI) Shares Up 43% YTD: More Room to Run?

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BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (BJRI - Free Report) is poised to benefit from its off-premise services, digital efforts and sales-building initiatives. Also, focus on refining and streamlining of its menu bodes well.

Shares of BJ's Restaurants have outperformed the industry so far this year. The stock has rallied 42.6% compared with the industry’s 7.2% growth. Moreover, an upward revision in earnings estimates for 2021 reflects analysts’ optimism in the company’s growth potential. In the past 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its 2021 earnings has skyrocketed 197.3% to 36 cents per share.

Factors Driving Growth

Although BJ’s Restaurants’ has reopened majority of its dining rooms with limited capacity, its off-premise operations continue to be a driving factor for overall sales. Notably, offerings such as individually portioned group meals, expanded family feast and bundle offerings has been a major contributor to its off-premise sales. Moreover, upgrades in kitchen systems along with front-end order and pickup technology have been boosting consumers’ optimism and order accuracy. Going forward, the company expects the momentum to continue as more customers are resonating well with the expanded off-premise offerings along with its connected curbside service.

Apart from this, the company continues to drive awareness in its key markets through greater and more targeted marketing.  In order to attract more customers, the company has rolled out several initiatives like digital check-ins, digital menus and digital payment options. Also, its transition from the current PDF form factor to a dynamic HTML version is encouraging.

Meanwhile, BJ’s Restaurants’ continues to focus on refining and streamlining its menu for improved traffic. During fourth-quarter 2020, the company began testing of its virtual brand —  slow roast — across its 13 restaurants. The delivery-only concept features slow roast items and other protein-centric products. Backed by impressive sales and solid customer feedback, the company expanded the testing to approximately 30 restaurants across California and Texas in first-quarter 2021. Nonetheless, the company continues to focus on menu adjustments and pricing structure, as it intends to establish a broader rollout plan in the upcoming periods.

Moreover, the company has been receiving positive reviews with respect to its beer subscription service — Beer Club. Notably, high customer engagement is being witnessed on the back of new beer releases along with program benefits. Going forward, the company plans to expand this program at majority of its California restaurants and other states as well.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

BJ’s Restaurants currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Some other top-ranked stocks in the same space include Chuy's Holdings, Inc. (CHUY - Free Report) and Ruth's Hospitality Group, Inc. and Texas Roadhouse, Inc. (TXRH - Free Report) each sporting a Zacks Rank #1.

Chuy's Holdings has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 127.6%, on average.

2021 earnings for Ruth's Hospitality are expected to surge 315.8%.

Texas Roadhouse has a three-five year earnings per share growth rate of 10%.

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