BJ's Restaurants (BJRI) Opens Outlet In Cary, North Carolina

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) opened its new restaurant at Cary, NC on Sep 19, 2016. The 7,300 square feet restaurant is located on Dillard Drive at the Centrum at Crossroads shopping center and can accommodate close to 225 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 unique contemporary décor creates an ideal environment for dining. This marks its second restaurant opening in North Carolina, following the success of the one located in Winston-Salem at Hanes Mall.

The company has opened 11 new restaurants year to date and currently operates 181 casual dining restaurants across 23 states of the U.S., under its brand names – BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewery, BJ’s Pizza & Grill and BJ’s Grill.

However, BJ’s Restaurants loses out in terms of international presence. While several other restaurateurs including Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) , McDonalds Corporation (NYSE:MCD) and Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA) are capitalizing on the emerging market potential, BJ’s Restaurants seems to be weak on this front.

Moreover, the restaurant industry in the U.S. has been experiencing low consumption over the last few quarters. Consumers are unwilling to dine out due to higher spending on other necessities like health care and the still-tightened credit availability. Thus, the company is in dire need to spread its presence beyond the U.S. in order to offset the impact of the saturated domestic market and cutthroat competition.

Further, BJ’s Restaurants posted weak second-quarter 2016 results wherein both earnings and revenues lagged the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Despite menu innovation and efficiencies derived from their initiatives such as the “Project Q”, the company’s comps declined and were softer than anticipated due to a difficult operating environment.

BJ'S RESTAURANT Price

Going forward, increase in labor costs as well as marketing and pre-opening expenses are expected to continue to keep profits under pressure. Additionally, social and political issues, weakening consumer confidence and rising global uncertainties might keep revenue growth under check.

BJ’s Restaurants currently holds a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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