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 acquired 62,329 shares of El Pollo Loco stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $13.46 per share, for a total transaction of $838,948.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 221,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,982,332.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Large shareholders that own more than 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 bought 43,161 shares of El Pollo Loco stock. The shares were bought at an average cost of $13.59 per share, for a total transaction of $586,557.99.
• On Friday, August 16th, Sardar Biglari purchased 21,325 shares of El Pollo Loco stock. The stock was bought at an average cost of $13.13 per share, with a total value of $279,997.25.
• On Wednesday, August 14th, Sardar Biglari acquired 62,362 shares of El Pollo Loco stock. The stock was bought at an average price of $12.47 per share, with a total value of $777,654.14.

El Pollo Loco Price Performance

LOCO stock opened at $13.81 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a current ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $429.49 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.05 and a beta of 1.48. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $11.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $10.37. El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $8.11 and a 52-week high of $14.25.

El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $122.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $120.39 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.23 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. will post 0.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On El Pollo Loco

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quarry LP purchased a new position in El Pollo Loco in the second quarter worth about $30,000. Gladius Capital Management LP purchased a new position in El Pollo Loco in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. CWM LLC lifted its position in El Pollo Loco by 34.1% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,808 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 969 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in El Pollo Loco by 285.7% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,338 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 6,176 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Paloma Partners Management Co bought a new stake in shares of El Pollo Loco in the 1st quarter worth $106,000. Institutional investors own 81.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com raised El Pollo Loco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Truist Financial increased their price objective on El Pollo Loco from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of El Pollo Loco in a report 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.