El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) Lowered to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Friday.

LOCO has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of El Pollo Loco from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Benchmark reaffirmed a hold rating on shares of El Pollo Loco in a report on Thursday, May 23rd.

El Pollo Loco Stock Down 1.3 %

NASDAQ:LOCO opened at $13.24 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.35 and a quick ratio of 0.32. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $12.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $10.57. El Pollo Loco has a 1-year low of $8.11 and a 1-year high of $14.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $411.76 million, a P/E ratio of 16.35 and a beta of 1.50.

El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.05. El Pollo Loco had a return on equity of 10.33% and a net margin of 5.76%. The business had revenue of $122.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $120.39 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.23 EPS. The company’s revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that El Pollo Loco will post 0.8 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at El Pollo Loco

In other El Pollo Loco news, major shareholder Sardar Biglari bought 21,325 shares of El Pollo Loco stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 16th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $13.13 per share, with a total value of $279,997.25. Following the purchase, the insider now directly owns 159,241 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,090,834.33. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Over the last three months, insiders have acquired 189,177 shares of company stock valued at $2,483,158. Company insiders own 1.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of El Pollo Loco

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Jump Financial LLC raised its position in shares of El Pollo Loco by 30.9% in the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 26,059 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $230,000 after buying an additional 6,159 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in El Pollo Loco by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,360,543 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $20,820,000 after acquiring an additional 20,907 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of El Pollo Loco in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $304,000. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new position in El Pollo Loco during the fourth quarter worth approximately $685,000. Finally, Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new position in El Pollo Loco during the fourth quarter worth $111,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.28% of the company’s stock.

El Pollo Loco Company Profile

El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc, through its subsidiary, El Pollo Loco, Inc, develops, franchises, licenses, and operates quick-service restaurants under the El Pollo Loco name. It operates and franchises restaurants located in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Utah, and Louisiana. It also licenses its brand to restaurants in the Philippines.