El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOCO) Major Shareholder Purchases $838,948.34 in Stock

El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOCO) major shareholder Sardar Biglari bought 62,329 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $13.46 per share, with a total value of $838,948.34. Following the acquisition, the insider now owns 221,570 shares in the company, valued at $2,982,332.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Major shareholders that own at least 10% of a company’s shares are required to disclose their sales and purchases with the SEC.

Sardar Biglari also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, August 21st, Sardar Biglari purchased 43,161 shares of El Pollo Loco stock. The shares were purchased at an average price of $13.59 per share, for a total transaction of $586,557.99.
• On Friday, August 16th, Sardar Biglari bought 21,325 shares of El Pollo Loco stock. The shares were acquired at an average price of $13.13 per share, for a total transaction of $279,997.25.
• On Wednesday, August 14th, Sardar Biglari purchased 62,362 shares of El Pollo Loco stock. The stock was acquired at an average price of $12.47 per share, with a total value of $777,654.14.

El Pollo Loco Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LOCO opened at $13.81 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company has a market capitalization of $429.49 million, a PE ratio of 17.05 and a beta of 1.48. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $11.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $10.37. El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $8.11 and a twelve month high of $14.25.

El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.05. El Pollo Loco had a return on equity of 10.27% and a net margin of 5.76%. The firm had revenue of $122.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $120.39 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.23 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. will post 0.71 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On El Pollo Loco

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of El Pollo Loco in the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. Gladius Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of El Pollo Loco during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. CWM LLC raised its holdings in shares of El Pollo Loco by 34.1% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,808 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 969 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of El Pollo Loco by 285.7% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,338 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $74,000 after buying an additional 6,176 shares during the period. Finally, Paloma Partners Management Co acquired a new stake in shares of El Pollo Loco in the 1st quarter valued at about $106,000. 81.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on LOCO. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of El Pollo Loco from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com raised El Pollo Loco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of El Pollo Loco in a research note on Thursday, May 23rd.

El Pollo Loco Company Profile

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.