Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,720,000 shares, a decline of 7.5% from the July 15th total of 1,860,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 672,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.6 days. Approximately 3.5% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Jay C. Gilmore bought 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 14th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $6.51 per share, with a total value of $78,120.00. Following the purchase, the chief accounting officer now owns 121,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $789,187.77. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, CAO Jay C. Gilmore bought 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 14th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $6.51 per share, with a total value of $78,120.00. Following the purchase, the chief accounting officer now owns 121,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $789,187.77. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Robert P. Verostek acquired 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 14th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $6.53 per share, with a total value of $65,300.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer now directly owns 24,000 shares in the company, valued at $156,720. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 4.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Denny’s

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Denny’s in the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. CWM LLC raised its stake in shares of Denny’s by 726.2% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,685 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 3,239 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP raised its stake in shares of Denny’s by 161.5% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 4,237 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 2,617 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new stake in shares of Denny’s in the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Denny’s by 126.7% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 4,538 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 2,536 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.07% of the company’s stock.

Denny’s Price Performance

Shares of DENN stock opened at $6.16 on Wednesday. Denny’s has a 12 month low of $5.59 and a 12 month high of $11.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $316.44 million, a P/E ratio of 14.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 2.01. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $6.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $7.88.

Denny’s (NASDAQ:DENN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.13 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by ($0.04). Denny’s had a negative return on equity of 57.37% and a net margin of 4.19%. The firm had revenue of $115.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $118.98 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.14 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Denny’s will post 0.55 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on DENN shares. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $15.00 price objective on shares of Denny’s in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Oppenheimer reduced their target price on shares of Denny’s from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Truist Financial reduced their target price on shares of Denny’s from $11.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Denny’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Wedbush reduced their target price on shares of Denny’s from $8.50 to $8.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Denny’s currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $10.40.

About Denny’s

Denny's Corporation, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates franchised full-service restaurant chains under the Denny's and Keke's Breakfast Cafe brands in the United States and internationally. The company was formerly known as Advantica Restaurant Group, Inc and changed its name to Denny's Corporation in July 2002.