BJ's Restaurants, Inc. BJRI expands its footprint with its debut restaurant location in Brookfield, WI. This marks the company’s first restaurant opening in fiscal 2024.
This 7,500 square feet property houses about 250 guests, showcasing the company’s exclusive and contemporary designs for all dining occasions. Furthermore, the diversified menu offerings, ranging from BJ’s signature deep-dish pizza to its handcrafted Pizookie dessert, add to the charm of this debut opening.
BJRI remains optimistic about this new opening as it believes this will lay the foundation for further expansion opportunities in Wisconsin.
BJRI on an Expansion Spree
One of the primary growth initiatives of BJ's Restaurants includes investments in new restaurant openings. The company maintains a balanced approach to opening new restaurants while ensuring the portfolio optimization for maximum shareholder returns.
In 2023, it unveiled five new restaurants, including the relocation of the Chandler, AZ establishment. Notably, restaurants launched since 2021 are performing exceptionally well, with weekly sales averaging more than $130,000, approximately 10% higher than the system average. The restaurants also maintain restaurant-level margins in the mid-to-upper teens on an annual basis. The company plans to continue balanced restaurant openings.
BJRI is on track to open three new restaurants during 2024. The remaining two new openings for the year are anticipated to be unveiled in the second half of 2024. The company also states its intention to further expand its development pipeline to position itself for accelerated restaurant openings in 2025 and beyond.
Price Performance
Shares of this owner and operator of a chain of high-end casual dining restaurants have gained 53.2% in the past six months, outperforming the Zacks Retail - Restaurants industry’s 14.8% growth. The company is most likely benefiting from its productivity and margin enhancement initiatives along with expansion strategies.
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Earnings estimates for this current Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company for 2024 are pegged at $1.23 per share, indicating 50% growth from the year-ago period’s reported levels. The growth prospect is further solidified with a VGM Score of A, backed by a Value Score of B and Growth Score of A. Such an uptrend depicts analysts’ optimism about the stock’s potential.
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