Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Sells 3,272 Shares of Denny’s Corporation (NASDAQ:DENN)

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC lessened its stake in shares of Denny’s Corporation (NASDAQ:DENN) by 3.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 88,288 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 3,272 shares during the quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC owned approximately 0.17% of Denny’s worth $324,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. CWM LLC grew its position in Denny’s by 217.7% during the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,725 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 4,608 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Denny’s during the first quarter worth about $41,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Denny’s by 63.5% in the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 828,571 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $3,041,000 after buying an additional 321,877 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Denny’s by 3.9% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 217,322 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $798,000 after buying an additional 8,159 shares during the period. Finally, Vontobel Holding Ltd. bought a new position in Denny’s in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $60,000. 85.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Denny’s Stock Performance

Denny’s stock opened at $3.98 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $203.98 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.06 and a beta of 1.65. Denny’s Corporation has a 52-week low of $2.85 and a 52-week high of $7.73. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $4.15 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $4.56.

Denny’s (NASDAQ:DENN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 5th. The restaurant operator reported $0.08 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.08. The company had revenue of $111.64 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $110.11 million. Denny’s had a net margin of 3.79% and a negative return on equity of 57.90%. Denny’s’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.11 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Denny’s Corporation will post 0.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on DENN. Oppenheimer reduced their target price on shares of Denny’s from $7.00 to $6.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Denny’s from $7.00 to $6.25 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $7.46.

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.