Denny's Co. (NASDAQ:DENN) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

Denny's Co. (NASDAQ:DENN - Get Free Report) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,410,000 shares, a drop of 24.4% from the April 30th total of 4,510,000 shares. Currently, 6.9% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,310,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.6 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of DENN. CWM LLC lifted its stake in shares of Denny's by 217.7% during the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,725 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 4,608 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of Denny's in the first quarter worth $40,000. Cerity Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Denny's in the 1st quarter worth approximately $41,000. Gilbert & Cook Inc. acquired a new stake in Denny's during the first quarter worth about $44,000. Finally, Quarry LP boosted its stake in Denny's by 178.4% during the 4th quarter. Quarry LP now owns 9,618 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 6,163 shares during the period. 85.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Denny's Trading Down 2.6%

Shares of DENN stock traded down $0.11 on Thursday, reaching $3.91. 119,223 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 918,600. Denny's has a twelve month low of $2.85 and a twelve month high of $7.73. The company has a market capitalization of $200.14 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.50 and a beta of 1.63. The business's 50 day moving average price is $3.68 and its 200 day moving average price is $4.95.

Denny's (NASDAQ:DENN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The restaurant operator reported $0.08 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $110.11 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.11 EPS. The business's revenue was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Denny's will post 0.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Piper Sandler decreased 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 note on Tuesday, February 18th. Oppenheimer lowered their price target on Denny's from $7.00 to $6.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Wedbush lowered their price objective on 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, Citigroup dropped their price target on Denny's from $7.00 to $6.25 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $7.46.

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.