Royce & Associates LP Invests $1.30 Million in Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN)

Royce & Associates LP purchased a new position in shares of Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 214,887 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $1,300,000.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Access Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Denny’s by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Access Investment Management LLC now owns 218,235 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,320,000 after buying an additional 3,135 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Denny’s by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,175,986 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $7,585,000 after buying an additional 3,142 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Denny’s by 0.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,180,879 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $7,618,000 after purchasing an additional 3,902 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in shares of Denny’s by 25.3% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 23,272 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $141,000 after buying an additional 4,704 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC increased its position in Denny’s by 95.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 12,239 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 5,970 shares during the period. 85.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Denny’s

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on DENN shares. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Denny’s from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Denny’s from $8.00 to $7.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Wedbush dropped 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. Oppenheimer cut their price target on shares of Denny’s from $8.00 to $7.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Denny’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $7.75.

Denny’s Stock Up 2.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:DENN opened at $4.02 on Friday. Denny’s Co. has a twelve month low of $3.80 and a twelve month high of $9.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $207.48 million, a PE ratio of 9.81 and a beta of 2.08. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $5.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $6.00.

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

Denny’s 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.