El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (LOCO) Raised to “Hold” at Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOCO) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Wednesday morning.

According to Zacks, “El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiary, develops, franchises, licenses and operates quick-service restaurants under the name El Pollo Loco. The restaurants specializes in flame-grilled chicken in a variety of contemporary Mexican-influenced entrees, including specialty chicken burritos, chicken quesadillas, chicken tortilla soup, Pollo Bowls and Pollo Salads. El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California. “

LOCO has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Jefferies Group LLC reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $15.00 target price on shares of El Pollo Loco Holdings in a report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of El Pollo Loco Holdings from $14.00 to $13.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 7th. BidaskClub cut shares of El Pollo Loco Holdings from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of El Pollo Loco Holdings from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, June 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. The company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $14.75.

El Pollo Loco Holdings (NASDAQ LOCO) traded up 0.87% during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $11.60. The stock had a trading volume of 165,487 shares. El Pollo Loco Holdings has a 12-month low of $10.08 and a 12-month high of $14.85. The company has a 50-day moving average of $12.64 and a 200-day moving average of $12.82. The stock has a market cap of $448.35 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.22 and a beta of 0.31.

El Pollo Loco Holdings (NASDAQ:LOCO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The restaurant operator reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.01. El Pollo Loco Holdings had a net margin of 4.66% and a return on equity of 9.56%. The firm had revenue of $105.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $105.83 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.19 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that El Pollo Loco Holdings will post $0.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp boosted its stake in El Pollo Loco Holdings by 10.1% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 380,158 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $4,679,000 after buying an additional 34,822 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in El Pollo Loco Holdings by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 219,418 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,699,000 after buying an additional 16,684 shares in the last quarter. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. NY boosted its stake in El Pollo Loco Holdings by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. NY now owns 15,797 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $194,000 after buying an additional 1,835 shares in the last quarter. Princeton Alpha Management LP bought a new stake in El Pollo Loco Holdings during the first quarter valued at approximately $138,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in El Pollo Loco Holdings by 2.1% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 272,776 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $3,260,000 after buying an additional 5,587 shares in the last quarter. 77.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About El Pollo Loco Holdings

El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc specializes in fire-grilling citrus-marinated chicken and operates in the limited service restaurant (LSR) segment. The Company’s menu features its signature product, citrus-marinated fire-grilled chicken, and a range of Mexican-inspired entrees that it creates from chicken.

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