El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOCO) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOCO) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the five brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, two have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $15.75.

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Zacks Research upgraded El Pollo Loco from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $13.50 price target on shares of El Pollo Loco in a report on Monday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of El Pollo Loco in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Divisadero Street Capital Management LP grew its position in shares of El Pollo Loco by 495.3% in the 2nd quarter. Divisadero Street Capital Management LP now owns 1,231,087 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $13,554,000 after buying an additional 1,024,302 shares during the last quarter. Tieton Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of El Pollo Loco by 22.3% during the second quarter. Tieton Capital Management LLC now owns 629,990 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $6,936,000 after acquiring an additional 114,850 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in El Pollo Loco in the first quarter valued at $5,618,000. Carlson Capital L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of El Pollo Loco in the second quarter valued at about $672,000. Finally, Boston Partners acquired a new stake in shares of El Pollo Loco during the second quarter worth about $551,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.28% of the company’s stock.

El Pollo Loco Price Performance

Shares of LOCO stock opened at $11.61 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $347.72 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.19 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.41. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $10.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $10.43. El Pollo Loco has a fifty-two week low of $8.29 and a fifty-two week high of $13.14.

El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.04. El Pollo Loco had a net margin of 5.39% and a return on equity of 10.15%. The business had revenue of $121.52 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $123.57 million. As a group, equities analysts forecast that El Pollo Loco will post 0.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.