Traders Buy High Volume of Denny's Put Options (NASDAQ:DENN)

Key Points

• Denny's Corporation experienced a significant spike in options trading, with 21,666 put options traded, marking an increase of approximately 3,935% from the average.
• Benchmark lowered its price target for Denny's from $8.00 to $6.00, while five analysts maintain a Buy rating and one a Hold rating, leading to an average consensus target of $6.46.
• The company's recent earnings report showed a miss on EPS, reporting $0.09 compared to an estimate of $0.10, alongside a slight revenue increase of 1.0% year-over-year despite a net margin of only 3.53%.

Denny's Corporation (NASDAQ:DENN - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock investors acquired 21,666 put options on the company. This is an increase of 3,935% compared to the average volume of 537 put options.

Denny's Stock Performance

NASDAQ:DENN traded down $0.18 during trading on Friday, reaching $5.02. The company's stock had a trading volume of 810,339 shares, compared to its average volume of 858,290. The firm has a market cap of $258.53 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.19 and a beta of 1.63. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $4.32 and a 200-day moving average of $4.05. Denny's has a 12 month low of $2.85 and a 12 month high of $7.73.

Denny's (NASDAQ:DENN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 4th. The restaurant operator reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.10 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $117.66 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $118.14 million. Denny's had a net margin of 3.53% and a negative return on equity of 59.51%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.13 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Denny's will post 0.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. CWM LLC grew its stake in Denny's by 217.7% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,725 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 4,608 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC bought a new position in Denny's in the 1st quarter valued at $40,000. Cerity Partners LLC bought a new position in Denny's in the 1st quarter valued at $41,000. Bank of Montreal Can bought a new position in Denny's in the 2nd quarter valued at $48,000. Finally, Gilbert & Cook Inc. bought a new position in Denny's in the 1st quarter valued at $44,000. Institutional investors own 85.07% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DENN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Benchmark lowered their target price on Denny's from $8.00 to $6.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Piper Sandler set a $4.00 price target on Denny's and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Denny's has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $6.46.

Denny's Company 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.