Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $7.70.

DENN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com cut Denny’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup raised shares of Denny’s from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $7.00 to $7.50 in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Oppenheimer cut their target price on shares of Denny’s from $10.00 to $7.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wedbush lowered 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, Benchmark cut their price objective on Denny’s from $15.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th.

Denny’s Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:DENN opened at $6.36 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $6.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $6.67. Denny’s has a 52 week low of $5.37 and a 52 week high of $11.16. The company has a market cap of $326.45 million, a PE ratio of 19.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 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 (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). Denny’s had a net margin of 3.90% and a negative return on equity of 48.64%. The business had revenue of $111.76 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $115.46 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.17 EPS. Denny’s’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Denny’s will post 0.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Denny’s

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in Denny’s by 8.7% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 21,130 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $150,000 after acquiring an additional 1,694 shares during the period. Creative Planning increased its stake in shares of Denny’s by 6.4% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 37,669 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $243,000 after purchasing an additional 2,273 shares during the period. Quarry LP lifted its position in shares of Denny’s by 161.5% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 4,237 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 2,617 shares during the last quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC boosted its stake in Denny’s by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC now owns 76,010 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $540,000 after purchasing an additional 2,775 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in Denny’s by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,175,986 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $7,585,000 after buying an additional 3,142 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.07% of the company’s stock.

Denny’s Company Profile

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.