El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) Cut to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Friday morning.

LOCO has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Benchmark restated a hold rating on shares of El Pollo Loco in a research report on Thursday, May 23rd. Truist Financial raised their price objective on El Pollo Loco from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd.

El Pollo Loco Price Performance

Shares of LOCO stock opened at $11.32 on Friday. El Pollo Loco has a twelve month low of $8.11 and a twelve month high of $11.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $10.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $9.68. The company has a market cap of $352.05 million, a P/E ratio of 13.98 and a beta of 1.48.

El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The restaurant operator reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $116.15 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.09 million. El Pollo Loco had a net margin of 5.64% and a return on equity of 10.13%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.14 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that El Pollo Loco will post 0.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LOCO. Gladius Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in El Pollo Loco in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. CWM LLC lifted its stake in shares of El Pollo Loco by 34.1% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,808 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 969 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of El Pollo Loco by 285.7% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,338 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $74,000 after acquiring an additional 6,176 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its holdings in El Pollo Loco by 1,074.7% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 10,126 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $89,000 after acquiring an additional 9,264 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Paloma Partners Management Co acquired a new stake in El Pollo Loco during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $106,000. 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.