El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOCO) Major Shareholder Sardar Biglari Acquires 43,161 Shares of Stock

El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOCO) major shareholder Sardar Biglari acquired 43,161 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $13.59 per share, with a total value of $586,557.99. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now directly owns 364,731 shares in the company, valued at $4,956,694.29. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Major shareholders that own more than 10% of a company’s shares are required to disclose their transactions with the SEC.

Sardar Biglari also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, August 19th, Sardar Biglari bought 62,329 shares of El Pollo Loco stock. The stock was bought at an average price of $13.46 per share, with a total value of $838,948.34.
• On Friday, August 16th, Sardar Biglari purchased 21,325 shares of El Pollo Loco stock. The stock was bought at an average price of $13.13 per share, with a total value of $279,997.25.
• On Wednesday, August 14th, Sardar Biglari bought 62,362 shares of El Pollo Loco stock. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $12.47 per share, for a total transaction of $777,654.14.

El Pollo Loco Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of El Pollo Loco stock opened at $13.66 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.33. The stock has a market cap of $424.83 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.86 and a beta of 1.48. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $11.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $10.32. El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $8.11 and a 1 year high of $13.87.

El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) last released 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. The firm had revenue of $122.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $120.39 million. El Pollo Loco had a net margin of 5.76% and a return on equity of 10.27%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.23 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of El Pollo Loco

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of LOCO. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of El Pollo Loco during the 4th quarter worth $685,000. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of El Pollo Loco by 321.8% during the first quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 145,498 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,417,000 after buying an additional 111,000 shares during the last quarter. Fund 1 Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of El Pollo Loco in the 4th quarter valued at about $7,746,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of El Pollo Loco by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,323,373 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $12,890,000 after buying an additional 67,368 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its stake in shares of El Pollo Loco by 797.2% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 102,257 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $996,000 after acquiring an additional 90,860 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of El Pollo Loco from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com cut El Pollo Loco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 10th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of El Pollo Loco in a report on Thursday, May 23rd.

About El Pollo Loco

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.