JPMorgan Chase & Co. Buys 75,542 Shares of El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOCO)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOCO) by 22.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 411,298 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 75,542 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned approximately 1.37% of El Pollo Loco worth $5,635,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of LOCO. Point72 DIFC Ltd purchased a new stake in El Pollo Loco in the third quarter worth $27,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of El Pollo Loco by 91.8% during the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 2,094 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 1,002 shares during the period. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in El Pollo Loco in the 2nd quarter worth about $30,000. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in El Pollo Loco in the 3rd quarter valued at about $45,000. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in El Pollo Loco during the third quarter valued at about $120,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.28% of the company’s stock.

El Pollo Loco Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of LOCO stock opened at $11.47 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $343.40 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.52 and a beta of 1.47. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $12.06 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $12.46. El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $8.17 and a 1 year high of $14.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.29.

El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The restaurant operator reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.04. El Pollo Loco had a return on equity of 10.34% and a net margin of 5.11%. The company had revenue of $120.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $121.03 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.19 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. will post 0.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded shares of El Pollo Loco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th.

El Pollo Loco Profile

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.