Stock Upgrades, Downgrades from TheStreet.com Ratings

Each business day, TheStreet.com Ratings updates its ratings on the stocks it covers. The proprietary ratings model projects a stock's total return potential over a 12-month period, including both price appreciation and dividends. Buy, hold or sell ratings designate how the Ratings group expects these stocks to perform against a general benchmark of the equities market and interest rates.

While the ratings model is quantitative, it uses both subjective and objective elements. For instance, subjective elements include expected equities market returns, future interest rates, implied industry outlook and company earnings forecasts. Objective elements include volatility of past operating revenue, financial strength and company cash flows.

BJ's Restaurants(BJRI) owns and operates casual dining restaurants in the U.S. It has been downgraded to hold from buy. The company's third-quarter revenue grew by 30.1% compared with the same period last year, outpacing the industry average of 0.6%. In addition, BJ's has no debt to speak of, which we consider to be a relatively favorable sign. It also maintains a quick ratio of 1.82, which demonstrates the company's ability to cover short-term liquidity needs. BJ's stock is reasonably valued. As a counter to these strengths, weaknesses include disappointing return on equity, poor profit margins and weak operating cash flow, and the company's stock price has fallen by 17.98% in the last 12 months. BJ's had been rated buy since December 2005.