Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Lowers Position in Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN) by 11.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 47,160 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 6,000 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC owned about 0.09% of Denny’s worth $304,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of DENN. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in Denny’s by 20.7% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 42,593 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $382,000 after buying an additional 7,309 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Denny’s by 19.9% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 267,357 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,396,000 after purchasing an additional 44,414 shares in the last quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System lifted its position in shares of Denny’s by 87.2% during the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 29,189 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $262,000 after purchasing an additional 13,600 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Denny’s by 2.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,335,391 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $29,885,000 after purchasing an additional 89,465 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Denny’s by 56.1% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 122,850 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,102,000 after purchasing an additional 44,163 shares in the last quarter. 85.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Benchmark reduced their target price on shares of Denny’s from $15.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. StockNews.com cut shares of Denny’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup raised shares of Denny’s from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $7.00 to $7.50 in a report on Friday, October 25th. Wedbush cut their price target on shares of Denny’s from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Oppenheimer cut their price target on shares of Denny’s from $10.00 to $7.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $7.70.

Denny’s Price Performance

DENN stock opened at $6.54 on Monday. Denny’s Co. has a 1-year low of $5.37 and a 1-year high of $11.16. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $6.46 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $6.75. The firm has a market cap of $335.70 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.82, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 2.02.

Denny’s (NASDAQ:DENN) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The restaurant operator reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $111.76 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $115.46 million. Denny’s had a net margin of 3.90% and a negative return on equity of 48.64%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.17 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Denny’s Co. will post 0.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Denny’s

Denny's Corporation, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates franchised full-service restaurant chains under the Denny's and Keke's Breakfast Cafe brands in the United States and internationally. The company was formerly known as Advantica Restaurant Group, Inc and changed its name to Denny's Corporation in July 2002.