Denny’s (NASDAQ:DENN) Receives “Buy” Rating from Benchmark

Benchmark reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Denny’s (NASDAQ:DENN) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. Benchmark currently has a $15.00 price objective on the restaurant operator’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on DENN. StockNews.com raised shares of Denny’s from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Wedbush reduced their price target on Denny’s from $10.50 to $9.50 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 26th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Denny’s from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their target price on shares of Denny’s from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $11.42.

Denny’s Stock Performance

NASDAQ DENN opened at $8.04 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $8.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.52. The stock has a market cap of $426.92 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.70, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.94. Denny’s has a twelve month low of $7.82 and a twelve month high of $12.53.

Denny’s (NASDAQ:DENN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.14 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $109.97 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $115.17 million. Denny’s had a negative return on equity of 66.19% and a net margin of 5.27%. The firm’s revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.13 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Denny’s will post 0.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director John C. Miller sold 35,359 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.25, for a total transaction of $327,070.75. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 740,626 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,850,790.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 4.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Denny’s

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its stake in shares of Denny’s by 45.9% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 15,403 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $130,000 after buying an additional 4,843 shares during the period. Skylands Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Denny’s by 194.0% in the third quarter. Skylands Capital LLC now owns 94,075 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $797,000 after purchasing an additional 62,075 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in Denny’s by 3.8% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,049,458 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $68,179,000 after purchasing an additional 296,554 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Denny’s by 6.1% during the third quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 235,449 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,994,000 after buying an additional 13,451 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its holdings in Denny’s by 48.1% in the 3rd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 31,854 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $270,000 after buying an additional 10,340 shares during the period. 85.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Denny’s

Denny's Corporation, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates franchised full-service restaurant chains under the Denny's and Keke's Breakfast Cafe brands in the United States and internationally. The company was formerly known as Advantica Restaurant Group, Inc and changed its name to Denny's Corporation in July 2002.