Analysts Set Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN) PT at $7.75

Shares of Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $7.75.

Several research firms have recently issued reports on DENN. Oppenheimer cut their price target on Denny’s from $8.00 to $7.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Wedbush cut their target price on shares of Denny’s from $10.00 to $8.50 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Denny’s from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com downgraded Denny’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on Denny’s from $8.00 to $7.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th.

Denny’s Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of DENN opened at $3.93 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $5.54 and its two-hundred day moving average is $6.07. Denny’s has a twelve month low of $3.84 and a twelve month high of $9.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $202.83 million, a P/E ratio of 9.59 and a beta of 2.08.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Denny’s news, CEO Kelli Valade bought 9,700 shares of Denny’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $5.13 per share, for a total transaction of $49,761.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 192,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $989,094.78. This represents a 5.30 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Stephen C. Dunn purchased 9,815 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $5.08 per share, with a total value of $49,860.20. Following the acquisition, the executive vice president now directly owns 113,666 shares in the company, valued at $577,423.28. This trade represents a 9.45 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have bought 20,465 shares of company stock worth $104,457. 4.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Denny’s

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of DENN. Quarry LP grew its stake in shares of Denny’s by 178.4% during the 4th quarter. Quarry LP now owns 9,618 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $58,000 after buying an additional 6,163 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new position in Denny’s in the fourth quarter valued at $61,000. RPO LLC purchased a new stake in Denny’s during the fourth quarter valued at about $63,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in Denny’s by 95.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 12,239 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $79,000 after acquiring an additional 5,970 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Denny’s in the 3rd quarter worth about $83,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.07% of the company’s stock.

Denny’s Company Profile

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.