Jefferies analyst Andy Barish reiterated a Hold rating and $25 price target on BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ: BJRI) following Q1 results, saying they are seeing some signs of encouragement, the company is still digging out of a hole.

Barish commented, "$0.20 EPS beat by 8c on -2.9% SSS (cons -3.4%). New menu/marketing helped reaccelerate traffic after a soft start to 1Q, and BJ’s continues to find incremental cost savings. ’14 devel cut back to 11 units, with at least 15 next yr, and we think mgmt is making the right moves to improve fundamentals. There’s still work to do though; April SSS -2.5%, and we worry traffic could stagnate without continued TV support. We est ‘14/15 EPS of $0.69/0.85 (was $0.65/NE)."

The firm trimmed Q2 EPS from $0.23 to $0.21 but raised FY 2014 EPS form $0.65 to $0.69.

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Shares of BJ's Restaurants closed at $29.51 yesterday.