Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN) Short Interest Up 21.5% in December

Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN) was the target of a large growth in short interest in 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. Based on an average daily volume of 720,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.7 days. Approximately 3.9% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Denny’s Stock Up 2.6 %

Shares of DENN stock traded up $0.15 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $5.93. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,216,780 shares, compared to its average volume of 887,433. Denny’s has a fifty-two week low of $5.37 and a fifty-two week high of $11.16. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $6.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $6.41. The company has a market capitalization of $304.38 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.97, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 2.01.

Denny’s (NASDAQ:DENN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The restaurant operator reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $111.76 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $115.46 million. Denny’s had a net margin of 3.90% and a negative return on equity of 48.64%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.17 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Denny’s will post 0.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Denny’s

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in DENN. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in Denny’s by 25.3% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Denny’s by 244.0% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 75,797 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $489,000 after acquiring an additional 53,763 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Denny’s by 342.5% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 82,257 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $531,000 after acquiring an additional 63,668 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Denny’s by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,180,879 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $7,618,000 after acquiring an additional 3,902 shares during the last quarter. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd increased its holdings in Denny’s by 588.2% in the 3rd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 87,470 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $564,000 after purchasing an additional 74,760 shares in the last quarter. 85.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on DENN shares. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Denny’s from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wedbush lowered their price objective on Denny’s from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Benchmark dropped their price objective on Denny’s from $15.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. StockNews.com lowered Denny’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Citigroup raised Denny’s from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $7.00 to $7.50 in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $7.90.

About Denny’s

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.