Emerald Advisers LLC Purchases Shares of 888 Texas Roadhouse, Inc. (NASDAQ:TXRH)

Emerald Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of Texas Roadhouse, Inc. (NASDAQ:TXRH) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 888 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $160,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Texas Roadhouse by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,540,615 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,180,123,000 after purchasing an additional 76,051 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Texas Roadhouse by 2.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,982,848 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $350,171,000 after buying an additional 38,723 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Texas Roadhouse by 1.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,201,641 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $212,261,000 after buying an additional 18,126 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of Texas Roadhouse by 14.4% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,180,842 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $208,539,000 after acquiring an additional 148,462 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC raised its stake in Texas Roadhouse by 81.6% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 898,522 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $158,679,000 after acquiring an additional 403,720 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on TXRH. Morgan Stanley upgraded Texas Roadhouse from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $205.00 to $213.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Wedbush dropped their target price on Texas Roadhouse from $220.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Texas Roadhouse from $185.00 to $184.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Stephens decreased their price objective on shares of Texas Roadhouse from $186.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Texas Roadhouse from $185.00 to $172.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Texas Roadhouse presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $192.91.

Insider Activity at Texas Roadhouse

In other news, Director Gregory N. Moore sold 2,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.26, for a total value of $454,302.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, President Regina A. Tobin sold 3,154 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.64, for a total transaction of $585,508.56. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 18,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,418,374.96. This represents a 14.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 17,905 shares of company stock valued at $3,198,367. 0.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Texas Roadhouse Stock Down 0.5 %

TXRH opened at $169.88 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $11.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.26, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $176.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $181.33. Texas Roadhouse, Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.75 and a 52-week high of $206.04.

Texas Roadhouse (NASDAQ:TXRH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.66 by $0.07. Texas Roadhouse had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 34.02%. The firm had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that Texas Roadhouse, Inc. will post 7.23 EPS for the current year.

Texas Roadhouse Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be given a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.60%. This is a boost from Texas Roadhouse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 18th. Texas Roadhouse’s payout ratio is presently 42.04%.

Texas Roadhouse Company Profile

Texas Roadhouse, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates casual dining restaurants in the United States and internationally. It also operates and franchises restaurants under the Texas Roadhouse, Bubba's 33, and Jaggers names in 49 states and ten internationally. Texas Roadhouse, Inc was founded in 1993 and is based in Louisville, Kentucky.