El Pollo Loco Reality Check From Analyst Quiet Period Expiration

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By Jon C. Ogg Published
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El Pollo Loco Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: LOCO) has gone from a super-hot initial public offering (IPO) to a serious reality check. The grilled chicken chain’s quiet period has ended, so now the analysts from the underwriting syndicate have been freed up to initiate coverage with formal analyst ratings.

Unfortunately for El Pollo Loco, these initial ratings have been issued with a whimper because of how much the stock has already run up. After its 7.14 million shares IPO went off at $15.00, this has traded in a range of $18.48 after the IPO all the way up to $41.70. Shares closed Monday at $33.36, and were down 6% or so at $31.20 in early trading Tuesday.

24/7 Wall St. has created an analyst montage of each new coverage alert for El Pollo Loco. The calls are as follows:

  • Baird started as Neutral with a $32 price target
  • Jefferies started as Hold with a $30 price target
  • Morgan Stanley started as Underweight and with a big downside $22 price target
  • Stifel started as Hold with a $30 price target

The one positive rating we have heard about was that William Blair started coverage with an Outperform rating.

READ ALSO: 10 Analyst Stocks to Buy Under $10 With Massive Upside Calls

24/7 Wall St. has not exactly been favorable to El Pollo Loco since its shares initially went parabolic. Had the stock traded up marginally we would have been extremely positive, but the hype-chasers took out all the implied upside and then some. On August 13 we asked if reality was setting in and on August 3 we questioned when the stock would cool off — it turns out that it cooled off immediately.

Some traders and investors were hoping that El Pollo Loco would be the next Chipotle. That is just too ambitious on the surface.

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About the Author Jon C. Ogg →

Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. a673b.bigscoots-temp.com.

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