Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN) CEO Kelli Valade Buys 9,700 Shares

Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN) CEO Kelli Valade purchased 9,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $5.13 per share, for a total transaction of $49,761.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 192,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,094.78. This represents a 5.30 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Denny’s Stock Up 4.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ DENN opened at $5.33 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $273.33 million, a P/E ratio of 12.99 and a beta of 2.02. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $6.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $6.23. Denny’s Co. has a fifty-two week low of $4.82 and a fifty-two week high of $9.52.

Denny’s (NASDAQ:DENN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The restaurant operator reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). Denny’s had a negative return on equity of 50.01% and a net margin of 4.77%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Denny’s Co. will post 0.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Denny’s

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DENN. Quarry LP raised its stake in shares of Denny’s by 178.4% in the 4th quarter. Quarry LP now owns 9,618 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $58,000 after buying an additional 6,163 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new position in Denny’s during the fourth quarter worth about $61,000. RPO LLC acquired a new position in Denny’s during the fourth quarter worth about $63,000. FMR LLC raised its position in Denny’s by 95.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 12,239 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $79,000 after acquiring an additional 5,970 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Denny’s in the 3rd quarter valued at about $83,000. 85.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DENN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Denny’s from $10.00 to $8.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Citigroup dropped their target price on Denny’s from $8.00 to $7.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Oppenheimer reduced their price target on shares of Denny’s from $8.00 to $7.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Denny’s from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Denny’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $7.75.

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.