BJ's Restaurants (BJRI Quick QuoteBJRI - Free Report) shares soared 6.4% in the last trading session to close at $24.93. The move was backed by solid volume with far more shares changing hands than in a normal session. This compares to the stock's 9.3% loss over the past four weeks.

Expansion efforts, recovery in comps and robust off-premise sales have been boosting investors’ sentiment.

This restaurant chain is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.25 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -3.9%. Revenues are expected to be $327.93 million, up 13% from the year-ago quarter.

Earnings and revenue growth expectations certainly give a good sense of the potential strength in a stock, but empirical research shows that trends in earnings estimate revisions are strongly correlated with near-term stock price movements.

For BJ's Restaurants, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. And a stock's price usually doesn't keep moving higher in the absence of any trend in earnings estimate revisions. So, make sure to keep an eye on BJRI going forward to see if this recent jump can turn into more strength down the road.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>

BJ's Restaurants is a member of the Zacks Retail - Restaurants industry. One other stock in the same industry, BBQ Holdings , finished the last trading session 3.5% higher at $11.50. BBQ has returned -6% over the past month.

BBQ Holdings' consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has remained unchanged over the past month at $0.35. Compared to the company's year-ago EPS, this represents a change of -27.1%. BBQ Holdings currently boasts a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).