MetLife Investment Management LLC Has $188,000 Position in Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN)

MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Denny’s Co. (NASDAQ:DENN) by 28.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 31,124 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 6,958 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Denny’s were worth $188,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Denny’s by 24.9% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,265,381 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $7,656,000 after acquiring an additional 251,874 shares during the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Denny’s by 107.0% in the fourth quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 280,381 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,696,000 after purchasing an additional 144,900 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Denny’s by 19.7% in the fourth quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 1,665,680 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $10,077,000 after purchasing an additional 274,459 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its position in shares of Denny’s by 2,820.6% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,665,893 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $10,081,000 after buying an additional 1,608,854 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its holdings in Denny’s by 99.7% during the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,138,473 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $6,888,000 after buying an additional 568,266 shares in the last quarter. 85.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on DENN. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Denny’s from $7.00 to $6.25 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Denny’s from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Denny’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Wedbush dropped their target price on shares of Denny’s from $10.00 to $8.50 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Oppenheimer reduced their target price on Denny’s from $7.00 to $6.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $7.46.

Insider Activity

In other Denny’s news, CEO Kelli Valade acquired 9,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $5.13 per share, with a total value of $49,761.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 192,806 shares in the company, valued at $989,094.78. This trade represents a 5.30 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Stephen C. Dunn bought 9,815 shares of Denny’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $5.08 per share, with a total value of $49,860.20. Following the purchase, the executive vice president now directly owns 113,666 shares of the company’s stock, 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 have bought 20,465 shares of company stock valued at $104,457 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 4.20% of the company’s stock.

Denny’s Stock Performance

Shares of DENN stock opened at $4.36 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $223.45 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.63 and a beta of 1.63. Denny’s Co. has a 52 week low of $2.85 and a 52 week high of $8.30. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $3.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $5.28.

Denny’s (NASDAQ:DENN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The restaurant operator reported $0.08 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08. Denny’s had a net margin of 4.77% and a negative return on equity of 50.01%. The company had revenue of $111.64 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $110.11 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.11 EPS. Denny’s’s revenue was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Denny’s Co. will post 0.5 earnings per share for the current year.

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.