Denny’s (NASDAQ:DENN) Lifted to “Buy” at Citigroup

Citigroup upgraded shares of Denny’s (NASDAQ:DENN) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. Citigroup currently has $7.50 price target on the restaurant operator’s stock, up from their prior price target of $7.00.

DENN has been the subject of several other research reports. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $15.00 target price on shares of Denny’s in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Denny’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Oppenheimer reduced their target price on shares of Denny’s from $10.00 to $7.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Denny’s from $11.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Wedbush reduced their price objective on shares of Denny’s from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Denny’s currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $8.10.

Denny’s Price Performance

DENN opened at $6.56 on Friday. Denny’s has a fifty-two week low of $5.37 and a fifty-two week high of $11.16. The company’s 50-day moving average is $6.31 and its 200 day moving average is $6.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $341.24 million, a P/E ratio of 15.26, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 2.02.

Denny’s (NASDAQ:DENN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The restaurant operator reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). Denny’s had a negative return on equity of 48.06% and a net margin of 3.90%. The company had revenue of $111.76 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $115.46 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.17 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Denny’s will post 0.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Denny’s

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in Denny’s by 6.9% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,634,514 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $55,693,000 after purchasing an additional 558,964 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Denny’s by 2.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,335,391 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $29,885,000 after purchasing an additional 89,465 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Denny’s by 14.1% during the second quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 1,258,827 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $8,938,000 after purchasing an additional 155,100 shares during the last quarter. Olstein Capital Management L.P. lifted its position in Denny’s by 9.9% during the second quarter. Olstein Capital Management L.P. now owns 896,400 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $6,364,000 after purchasing an additional 80,587 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in Denny’s by 1,487.7% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 531,530 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $3,774,000 after purchasing an additional 498,051 shares during the last quarter. 85.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Denny’s Company Profile

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.