Olstein Capital Management L.P. Decreases Holdings in Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN)

Olstein Capital Management L.P. trimmed its stake in shares of Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN) by 2.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 815,813 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 21,000 shares during the period. Olstein Capital Management L.P. owned 1.54% of Denny’s worth $7,310,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. North Star Investment Management Corp. lifted its stake in shares of Denny’s by 95.6% in the fourth quarter. North Star Investment Management Corp. now owns 431,700 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,697,000 after buying an additional 211,000 shares in the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC increased its position in Denny’s by 17.4% during the third quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,545,902 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $13,094,000 after purchasing an additional 228,709 shares during the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co increased its position in Denny’s by 16.4% during the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 15,546 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $169,000 after purchasing an additional 2,186 shares during the last quarter. Fruth Investment Management increased its position in Denny’s by 8.2% during the fourth quarter. Fruth Investment Management now owns 26,500 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $288,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Denny’s by 3.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,273,187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $27,724,000 after purchasing an additional 108,758 shares during the last quarter. 85.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on DENN shares. Wedbush dropped their price target on shares of Denny’s from $10.50 to $9.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on shares of Denny’s from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. StockNews.com cut shares of Denny’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $15.00 price target on shares of Denny’s in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $11.42.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Denny’s news, CAO Jay C. Gilmore acquired 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 14th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $6.51 per share, for a total transaction of $78,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 121,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $789,187.77. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Jay C. Gilmore bought 12,000 shares of Denny’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 14th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $6.51 per share, for a total transaction of $78,120.00. Following the acquisition, the chief accounting officer now owns 121,227 shares in the company, valued at $789,187.77. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Brenda J. Lauderback sold 11,145 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.36, for a total transaction of $82,027.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 15,406 shares in the company, valued at $113,388.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 4.20% of the company’s stock.

Denny’s Stock Performance

DENN traded down $0.30 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $6.47. The stock had a trading volume of 456,501 shares, compared to its average volume of 548,039. The firm has a market capitalization of $336.57 million, a P/E ratio of 15.74, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 2.01. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $7.38 and its 200 day moving average price is $8.86. Denny’s Co. has a twelve month low of $6.33 and a twelve month high of $12.40.

Denny’s (NASDAQ:DENN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by ($0.03). Denny’s had a negative return on equity of 63.27% and a net margin of 5.27%. The company had revenue of $109.97 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $115.17 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.13 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Denny’s Co. will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Denny’s

Denny's Corporation, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates franchised full-service restaurant chains under the Denny's and Keke's Breakfast Cafe brands in the United States and internationally. The company was formerly known as Advantica Restaurant Group, Inc and changed its name to Denny's Corporation in July 2002.