El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. $LOCO Shares Newly Purchased by Ellsworth Advisors LLC

Ellsworth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOCO) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 67,766 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $972,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of LOCO. Biglari Capital CORP. bought a new stake in El Pollo Loco in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $64,064,704. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in El Pollo Loco during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $41,716,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in El Pollo Loco by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,013,373 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $27,905,000 after acquiring an additional 12,072 shares during the last quarter. Tieton Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in El Pollo Loco during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $17,535,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its stake in shares of El Pollo Loco by 203.8% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 635,468 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $8,808,000 after acquiring an additional 426,320 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Benchmark lifted their price objective on shares of El Pollo Loco from $18.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Freedom Capital raised shares of El Pollo Loco to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Wall Street Zen cut shares of El Pollo Loco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 15th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of El Pollo Loco from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Friday, October 2nd. Finally, DA Davidson raised their target price on shares of El Pollo Loco from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, El Pollo Loco presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $17.30.

El Pollo Loco Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LOCO opened at $16.32 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $496.62 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.31 and a beta of 0.77. The business has a 50-day moving average of $15.01 and a 200-day moving average of $14.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 0.41 and a quick ratio of 0.38. El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $8.98 and a fifty-two week high of $17.40.

El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The restaurant operator reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.02. El Pollo Loco had a return on equity of 10.87% and a net margin of 6.96%. The business had revenue of $129.57 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $130.29 million. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. will post 0.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other El Pollo Loco news, major shareholder Sardar Biglari sold 80,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.90, for a total value of $1,352,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 66,422 shares in the company, valued at $1,122,531.80. This trade represents a 54.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders sold 108,257 shares of company stock valued at $1,824,954 in the last ninety days. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

El Pollo Loco Company Profile

El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc operates and franchises quick-service restaurants under the El Pollo Loco brand. The company specializes in Mexican-inspired meals centered on citrus-marinated, fire-grilled chicken, prepared using traditional cooking methods. Its menu includes chicken meals, burritos, tacos, quesadillas, salads, bowls, family meals and a variety of side dishes, beverages and desserts.

El Pollo Loco was founded in 1975 in Guasave, Sinaloa, Mexico, and opened its first restaurant in the United States in 1980.