High-end casual dining restaurant operator BJ’s Restaurants Inc. BJRI has increased its share repurchase program to $250 million from the prior plan of $200 million. This is the third increase by the board since the inception of the share repurchase program in Apr 2014.
Since implementation, the company has repurchased shares worth $187 million, which includes repurchases of about $21.2 million in the fourth quarter, to date. Currently, BJ’s Restaurants has approximately $63 million available for repurchase under its authorized $250 million share buyback program.
BJ’s Restaurants continues to return value to shareholders through these repurchases. This is backed by its strong operating results. The company has surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters and has an average beat of 30.6%.
Moreover, BJ’s Restaurants has significantly increased its cash flows over the past two years, thus improving its balance sheet and supporting further growth plans. It has already opened 27 new restaurants in the past two years and expects to open another 18 to 19 new restaurants in 2016. The company remains committed to double digit restaurant openings in 2017 and 2018.
With double digit new restaurant openings, sales momentum and operating and cost disciplines, BJ’s Restaurants is confident about revenue and earnings growth in the upcoming quarters. This should comfortably support its share repurchase plans.
Currently, BJ’s Restaurants sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
Other stocks worth considering in the Retail-Restaurant space are Jack in the Box Inc. JACK, Shake Shack Inc. SHAK and McDonald's Corp. MCD. All these hold the same Zacks Rank as BJ’s Restaurants.
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