Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,920,000 shares, a growth of 21.5% from the December 15th total of 1,580,000 shares. Currently, 3.9% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 720,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.7 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in Denny’s in the second quarter valued at $25,000. Quarry LP increased its position in Denny’s by 161.5% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 4,237 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 2,617 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new position in Denny’s during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in Denny’s in the second quarter worth approximately $77,000. Finally, FMR LLC grew its stake in Denny’s by 95.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 12,239 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $79,000 after acquiring an additional 5,970 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on DENN. Citigroup raised shares of Denny’s from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $7.00 to $7.50 in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Wedbush cut their target price on Denny’s from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Benchmark reduced their price target on Denny’s from $15.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. StockNews.com downgraded Denny’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on Denny’s from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $7.90.

Denny’s Stock Performance

Shares of DENN stock traded up $0.15 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $5.93. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,216,780 shares, compared to its average volume of 887,433. The company has a market cap of $304.38 million, a PE ratio of 17.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 2.01. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $6.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $6.41. Denny’s has a 52 week low of $5.37 and a 52 week high of $11.16.

Denny’s (NASDAQ:DENN) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The restaurant operator reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $111.76 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $115.46 million. Denny’s had a negative return on equity of 48.64% and a net margin of 3.90%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.17 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Denny’s will post 0.52 earnings per share for the current year.

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.