El Pollo Loco (LOCO) Stock Falling on Earnings Miss
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- El PolloLoco Holdings (LOCO) - Get Report stock is plummeting by 12.72% to $10.06 on heavy trading volume on Friday, after the restaurant chain's 2015 third quarter earnings results missed analysts' expectations.
The Costa Mesa, CA-based company reported third quarter earnings of 12 cents per share. Revenue increased to $88.9 million, up from $86.6 million for the year-ago period.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters projected that El Pollo Loco would report earnings of 15 cents a share on revenue of $90.4 million for the most recent quarter.
El Pollo Loco lowered its 2015 earnings projections to between 67 cents per share and 69 cents per share, versus its previous earnings estimate of 67 cents per share to 71 cents per share.
Comparable company-operated restaurant sales in the quarter were flat, driven by a 1.9% decrease in traffic, the company said. El Pollo Loco is taking actions to "reengage our value conscious customers," CEO Steve Sather said in a statement.
So far today, 2.4 million shares of El Pollo Loco have traded, versus its 30-day average of about 777,000 shares.
Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates EL POLLO LOCO HOLDINGS INC as a Sell with a ratings score of D. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:
We rate EL POLLO LOCO HOLDINGS INC (LOCO) a SELL. This is driven by a number of negative factors, which we believe should have a greater impact than any strengths, and could make it more difficult for investors to achieve positive results compared to most of the stocks we cover. Among the areas we feel are negative, one of the most important has been poor profit margins.
You can view the full analysis from the report here: LOCO
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