Insider Buying: El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOCO) Major Shareholder Purchases $279,997.25 in Stock

El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOCO) major shareholder Sardar Biglari purchased 21,325 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $13.13 per share, with a total value of $279,997.25. Following the purchase, the insider now owns 159,241 shares in the company, valued at $2,090,834.33. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Large shareholders that own at least 10% of a company’s stock are required to disclose their transactions with the SEC.

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

• On Wednesday, August 21st, Sardar Biglari bought 43,161 shares of El Pollo Loco stock. The shares were acquired at an average price of $13.59 per share, with a total value of $586,557.99.
• On Monday, August 19th, Sardar Biglari purchased 62,329 shares of El Pollo Loco stock. The shares were bought at an average cost of $13.46 per share, for a total transaction of $838,948.34.
• On Wednesday, August 14th, Sardar Biglari acquired 62,362 shares of El Pollo Loco stock. The shares were bought at an average cost of $12.47 per share, with a total value of $777,654.14.

El Pollo Loco Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of El Pollo Loco stock opened at $13.81 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a market cap of $429.49 million, a PE ratio of 17.05 and a beta of 1.48. El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $8.11 and a 12-month high of $14.25. The company has a 50-day moving average of $11.91 and a two-hundred day moving average of $10.37.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. StockNews.com upgraded El Pollo Loco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Truist Financial upped 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 report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of El Pollo Loco in a report on Thursday, May 23rd.

Institutional Trading of El Pollo Loco

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

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.