El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOCO) Major Shareholder Sardar Biglari Buys 62,362 Shares

El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOCO) major shareholder Sardar Biglari bought 62,362 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was bought at an average price of $12.47 per share, with a total value of $777,654.14. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now directly owns 87,362 shares in the company, valued at $1,089,404.14. The purchase 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 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 stock was bought at an average price of $13.59 per share, with a total value of $586,557.99.
• On Monday, August 19th, Sardar Biglari bought 62,329 shares of El Pollo Loco stock. The stock was bought at an average price of $13.46 per share, with a total value of $838,948.34.
• On Friday, August 16th, Sardar Biglari bought 21,325 shares of El Pollo Loco stock. The stock was bought at an average price of $13.13 per share, with a total value of $279,997.25.

El Pollo Loco Stock Performance

NASDAQ LOCO traded up $0.07 on Tuesday, hitting $13.66. 180,639 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 290,034. 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 firm’s 50-day moving average price is $11.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $10.32. El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. has a 1-year low of $8.11 and a 1-year high of $13.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $424.83 million, a PE ratio of 16.86 and a beta of 1.48.

El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $122.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $120.39 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.23 EPS. The business’s revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. will post 0.71 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On El Pollo Loco

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of El Pollo Loco in the 4th quarter valued at $685,000. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of El Pollo Loco by 321.8% in the 1st quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 145,498 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,417,000 after purchasing an additional 111,000 shares during the period. Fund 1 Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of El Pollo Loco in the 4th quarter valued at $7,746,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of El Pollo Loco by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,323,373 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $12,890,000 after purchasing an additional 67,368 shares during the period. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of El Pollo Loco by 797.2% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 102,257 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $996,000 after purchasing an additional 90,860 shares during the period. 81.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LOCO has been the subject of several research reports. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of El Pollo Loco from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com cut shares of El Pollo Loco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 10th. Finally, Benchmark restated 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.