El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) Cut 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 research note issued to investors on Saturday morning.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the stock. Benchmark reaffirmed a hold rating on shares of El Pollo Loco in a research note on Thursday, May 23rd. 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.

El Pollo Loco Stock Up 6.2 %

LOCO stock opened at $12.56 on Friday. El Pollo Loco has a 12 month low of $8.11 and a 12 month high of $12.60. The firm has a market cap of $390.62 million, a PE ratio of 15.51 and a beta of 1.48. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $10.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.33.

El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.05. El Pollo Loco had a net margin of 5.76% and a return on equity of 10.27%. The firm 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. Equities research analysts forecast that El Pollo Loco will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On El Pollo Loco

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. First Eagle Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of El Pollo Loco by 49.8% during the 2nd quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 217,922 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,465,000 after buying an additional 72,424 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its stake in shares of El Pollo Loco by 7.5% during the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 15,606 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $172,000 after buying an additional 1,090 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of El Pollo Loco by 17.7% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 34,044 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $385,000 after buying an additional 5,112 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of El Pollo Loco during the 2nd quarter valued at $4,407,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of El Pollo Loco by 9.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 126,878 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,435,000 after buying an additional 10,917 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.28% of the company’s stock.

About El Pollo Loco

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.