Denny’s (NASDAQ:DENN) Rating Increased to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Denny’s (NASDAQ:DENN) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday.

DENN has been the subject of several other research reports. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Denny’s from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Wedbush decreased their price objective on shares of Denny’s from $11.00 to $10.50 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on shares of Denny’s from $13.00 to $12.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $11.92.

Denny’s Price Performance

DENN opened at $8.41 on Wednesday. Denny’s has a fifty-two week low of $8.11 and a fifty-two week high of $12.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $446.57 million, a PE ratio of 24.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.93. The company’s 50-day moving average is $9.15 and its 200 day moving average is $9.53.

Denny’s (NASDAQ:DENN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The restaurant operator reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by ($0.03). Denny’s had a negative return on equity of 70.78% and a net margin of 4.30%. The business had revenue of $115.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $115.67 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.18 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Denny’s will post 0.64 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John C. Miller sold 35,359 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.25, for a total transaction of $327,070.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 740,626 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,850,790.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 5.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of DENN. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in Denny’s by 11.3% in the 1st quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 22,616 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $323,000 after buying an additional 2,305 shares during the period. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC boosted its holdings in Denny’s by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC now owns 76,912 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,101,000 after buying an additional 2,485 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Denny’s by 50.0% in the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 32,473 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $465,000 after purchasing an additional 10,823 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Denny’s by 8.7% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,178,502 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $16,864,000 after purchasing an additional 94,513 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Denny’s by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,186,493 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $45,599,000 after purchasing an additional 26,750 shares during the period. 85.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Denny’s Company Profile

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.