Kelli Valade Buys 9,700 Shares of Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN) Stock

Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN) CEO Kelli Valade bought 9,700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $5.13 per share, for a total transaction of $49,761.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 192,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,094.78. The trade was a 5.30 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Denny’s Price Performance

Denny’s stock opened at $5.42 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $278.20 million, a PE ratio of 13.22 and a beta of 2.02. Denny’s Co. has a one year low of $4.82 and a one year high of $9.52. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $5.98 and a 200 day simple moving average of $6.23.

Denny’s (NASDAQ:DENN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The restaurant operator reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.01). Denny’s had a negative return on equity of 50.01% and a net margin of 4.77%. Equities analysts anticipate that Denny’s Co. will post 0.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Denny’s

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of DENN. Boston Partners raised its position in Denny’s by 2,820.6% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,665,893 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $10,081,000 after purchasing an additional 1,608,854 shares during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC raised its position in Denny’s by 73.2% in the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 1,381,120 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $8,908,000 after purchasing an additional 583,660 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its position in Denny’s by 99.7% in the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,138,473 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $6,888,000 after purchasing an additional 568,266 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC raised its position in Denny’s by 19.7% in the 4th quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 1,665,680 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $10,077,000 after purchasing an additional 274,459 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Denny’s by 20.7% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,559,063 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $9,432,000 after purchasing an additional 267,694 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DENN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wedbush lowered their target price on Denny’s from $10.00 to $8.50 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Denny’s from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Denny’s from $8.00 to $7.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on Denny’s from $10.00 to $8.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on Denny’s from $8.00 to $7.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $7.75.

About Denny’s

Denny’s Corp. engages in the operation of restaurants and franchised, and licensed restaurants. It operates through the Denny’s and Other segments. The Denny’s segment includes the results of all company and franchised and licensed Denny’s restaurants. The Other segment refers to the results of all company and franchise restaurants.