El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOCO) Stock Has Average Target Price of $17.30 According to Brokerages

El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOCO) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, four have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $17.30.

LOCO has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen cut shares of El Pollo Loco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 15th. DA Davidson raised their price target on shares of El Pollo Loco from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Roth Capital started coverage on shares of El Pollo Loco in a research report on Friday, October 9th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $22.00 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of El Pollo Loco from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Friday, October 2nd. Finally, Benchmark upped 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.

El Pollo Loco Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LOCO opened at $16.47 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $501.23 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.08 and a beta of 0.85. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $14.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $14.14. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. El Pollo Loco has a twelve month low of $9.99 and a twelve month high of $17.40.

El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The restaurant operator reported $0.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $129.57 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $130.29 million. El Pollo Loco had a return on equity of 10.87% and a net margin of 6.96%. Research analysts predict that El Pollo Loco will post 0.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder Sardar Biglari sold 25,556 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.50, for a total transaction of $421,674.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 3,513,405 shares in the company, valued at $57,971,182.50. The trade was a 0.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On El Pollo Loco

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Signaturefd LLC increased its holdings in El Pollo Loco by 419.9% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,563 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 2,070 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of El Pollo Loco during the 2nd quarter worth about $48,000. State of Wyoming bought a new position in shares of El Pollo Loco during the 1st quarter worth about $88,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new position in shares of El Pollo Loco during the 2nd quarter worth about $200,000. Finally, Man Group plc acquired a new stake in shares of El Pollo Loco during the 2nd quarter valued at about $253,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.28% of the company’s stock.

El Pollo Loco Company Profile

El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ: LOCO) operates and franchises quick-service restaurants specializing in Mexican-inspired food and citrus-marinated, fire-grilled chicken. Its menu includes chicken meals, burritos, tacos, quesadillas, salads, bowls and family meals, along with a variety of sides, beverages and desserts.

The company was founded in 1975 in Guasave, Sinaloa, Mexico, and expanded into the United States in 1980 with its first restaurant in Los Angeles. El Pollo Loco primarily serves customers through restaurants in the western and southwestern United States, particularly in California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Texas.