Ballentine Partners LLC Sells 21,021 Shares of Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN)

Ballentine Partners LLC lessened its holdings in Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN) by 31.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 45,367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 21,021 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC owned about 0.09% of Denny’s worth $274,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Denny’s by 244.0% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 75,797 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $489,000 after purchasing an additional 53,763 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Denny’s by 342.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 82,257 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $531,000 after purchasing an additional 63,668 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Denny’s by 0.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,180,879 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $7,618,000 after buying an additional 3,902 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd grew its stake in shares of Denny’s by 588.2% during the third quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 87,470 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $564,000 after buying an additional 74,760 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Denny’s by 0.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,175,986 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $7,585,000 after buying an additional 3,142 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on DENN shares. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Denny’s from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com cut Denny’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Denny’s from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $7.00 to $7.50 in a report on Friday, October 25th. Wedbush reduced their target price 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 dropped their price target on shares of Denny’s from $15.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $7.90.

Denny’s Stock Performance

NASDAQ:DENN opened at $6.40 on Friday. Denny’s Co. has a fifty-two week low of $5.37 and a fifty-two week high of $11.16. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $6.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $6.39. The company has a market capitalization of $328.51 million, a PE ratio of 19.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 2.01.

Denny’s (NASDAQ:DENN) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $111.76 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $115.46 million. Denny’s had a negative return on equity of 48.64% and a net margin of 3.90%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.17 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Denny’s Co. will post 0.52 EPS for the current year.

Denny’s Company Profile

Denny’s Corp. engages in the operation of restaurants and franchised, and licensed restaurants. It operates through the Denny’s and Other segments. The Denny’s segment includes the results of all company and franchised and licensed Denny’s restaurants. The Other segment refers to the results of all company and franchise restaurants.