El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) Now Covered by Roth Capital

Roth Capital initiated coverage on shares of El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) in a research note released on Friday morning, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $22.00 target price on the restaurant operator’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also commented on the company. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on El Pollo Loco from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of El Pollo Loco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 15th. Freedom Capital raised shares of El Pollo Loco to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Weiss Ratings raised shares of El Pollo Loco from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Friday, October 2nd. Finally, Benchmark raised their price objective on shares of El Pollo Loco from $18.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, El Pollo Loco presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $17.30.

El Pollo Loco Price Performance

NASDAQ:LOCO opened at $15.22 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $463.14 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.01 and a beta of 0.77. El Pollo Loco has a 52-week low of $8.98 and a 52-week high of $17.40. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $15.08 and a 200 day moving average of $14.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.41.

El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The restaurant operator reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.02. El Pollo Loco had a return on equity of 10.87% and a net margin of 6.96%. The business had revenue of $129.57 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $130.29 million. On average, research analysts expect that El Pollo Loco will post 0.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other El Pollo Loco news, major shareholder Sardar Biglari sold 80,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.90, for a total value of $1,352,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 66,422 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,122,531.80. This represents a 54.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 194,257 shares of company stock valued at $3,264,264. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On El Pollo Loco

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LOCO. Biglari Capital CORP. purchased a new position in El Pollo Loco in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $64,064,704. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of El Pollo Loco in the second quarter worth approximately $41,716,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of El Pollo Loco by 0.6% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,013,373 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $27,905,000 after buying an additional 12,072 shares during the period. Tieton Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of El Pollo Loco in the second quarter worth $17,535,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in El Pollo Loco by 203.8% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 635,468 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $8,808,000 after buying an additional 426,320 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.28% of the company’s stock.

El Pollo Loco Company Profile

El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc operates and franchises quick-service restaurants under the El Pollo Loco brand. The company specializes in Mexican-inspired meals centered on citrus-marinated, fire-grilled chicken, prepared using traditional cooking methods. Its menu includes chicken meals, burritos, tacos, quesadillas, salads, bowls, family meals and a variety of side dishes, beverages and desserts.

El Pollo Loco was founded in 1975 in Guasave, Sinaloa, Mexico, and opened its first restaurant in the United States in 1980.