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

StockNews.com downgraded shares of El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday.

El Pollo Loco Price Performance

Shares of El Pollo Loco stock opened at $11.75 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a current ratio of 0.31. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $11.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.48. The firm has a market cap of $351.80 million, a P/E ratio of 14.87 and a beta of 1.47. El Pollo Loco has a twelve month low of $8.17 and a twelve month high of $14.25.

El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The restaurant operator reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $120.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $121.03 million. El Pollo Loco had a return on equity of 10.34% and a net margin of 5.11%. El Pollo Loco’s quarterly revenue was up .0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.19 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that El Pollo Loco will post 0.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On El Pollo Loco

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in El Pollo Loco by 2.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 593,425 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $8,130,000 after buying an additional 14,692 shares in the last quarter. Biglari Sardar boosted its holdings in shares of El Pollo Loco by 307.7% in the 3rd quarter. Biglari Sardar now owns 489,247 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $6,703,000 after acquiring an additional 369,247 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of El Pollo Loco by 22.5% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 411,298 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,635,000 after acquiring an additional 75,542 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its stake in El Pollo Loco by 384.0% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 175,670 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,987,000 after purchasing an additional 139,375 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in El Pollo Loco by 5.3% in the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 167,003 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,288,000 after purchasing an additional 8,442 shares in the last quarter. 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.