BJ's Restaurants (Nasdaq: BJRI) came in right in line with the Street's expectations last quarter, but investors are hoping that it will beat them this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, Feb. 16. BJ's Restaurants owns and operates restaurants.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on BJ's Restaurants, with 10 of 16 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like BJ's Restaurants as much as competitor Buffalo Wild Wings overall. Eight out of 17 analysts rate Buffalo Wild Wings a buy compared to six of 16 for BJ's Restaurants. Analysts still rate the stock a hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $170.5 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 28.3% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.32 per share. Estimates range from $0.30 to $0.34.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are strongly supporting the stock, with 78.8% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The greater community is in line with the All-Stars, as 75.1% give it a rating of "outperform." Fools are impressed with BJ's Restaurants, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 88 posts in the past 30 days. BJ's Restaurants' bearish CAPS rating of one out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
BJ's Restaurants' profit has risen year-over-year by an average of more than twofold over the past five quarters.

Now, a look at how efficient management has been at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. BJ's Restaurants' gross margins, which reflect the total sales revenue retained after costs, have been dropping year-over-year for the last three quarters. Here are BJ's Restaurants' reported margins for the last four quarters:

Quarter

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Gross Margin

41.1%

20.7%

20.3%

41.0%

Operating Margin

5.7%

6.9%

7.0%

6.4%

Net Margin

4.2%

5.3%

5.0%

5.2%

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on BJ's Restaurants movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your Watchlist.