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How to buy El Pollo Loco stock
Own El Pollo Loco stock in just a few minutes.
Fact checked
El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc is a restaurants business based in the US. El Pollo Loco shares (LOCO) are listed on the NASDAQ and all prices are listed in US Dollars. El Pollo Loco employs 5,005 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$423.3 million.
How to buy shares in El Pollo Loco
- Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
- Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
- Search for El Pollo Loco. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: LOCO. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
- Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until El Pollo Loco reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
- Decide on how many to buy. Weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of El Pollo Loco, depending on your broker.
- Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of El Pollo Loco. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.
El Pollo Loco share price
Use our graph to track the performance of LOCO stocks over time.El Pollo Loco shares at a glance
Information last updated 2021-03-03.
| 52-week range | USD$6.1485 - USD$21.46 |
|---|---|
| 50-day moving average | USD$19.6444 |
| 200-day moving average | USD$17.6118 |
| Wall St. target price | USD$19.67 |
| PE ratio | 30.9591 |
| Dividend yield | N/A (0%) |
| Earnings per share (TTM) | USD$0.636 |
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The value of any investment can go up or down depending on news, trends and market conditions. We are not investment advisers, so do your own due diligence to understand the risks before you invest.
Is it a good time to buy El Pollo Loco stock?
The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.
This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.
Is El Pollo Loco under- or over-valued?
Valuing El Pollo Loco stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of El Pollo Loco's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.
El Pollo Loco's P/E ratio
El Pollo Loco's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 31x. In other words, El Pollo Loco shares trade at around 31x recent earnings.
That's relatively high compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The high P/E ratio could mean that investors are optimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're over-valued.
El Pollo Loco's PEG ratio
El Pollo Loco's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 1.16. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.
The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into El Pollo Loco's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.
El Pollo Loco's EBITDA
El Pollo Loco's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$57.7 million.
The EBITDA is a measure of a El Pollo Loco's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.
El Pollo Loco financials
| Revenue TTM | USD$423.3 million |
|---|---|
| Operating margin TTM | 9.54% |
| Gross profit TTM | USD$96.7 million |
| Return on assets TTM | 4.01% |
| Return on equity TTM | 8.81% |
| Profit margin | 5.32% |
| Book value | $7.439 |
| Market capitalisation | USD$717.6 million |
TTM: trailing 12 months
Shorting El Pollo Loco shares
There are currently 1.7 million El Pollo Loco shares held short by investors – that's known as El Pollo Loco's "short interest". This figure is 15.9% down from 2.0 million last month.
There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting El Pollo Loco shares can be evaluated.
El Pollo Loco's "short interest ratio" (SIR)
El Pollo Loco's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of El Pollo Loco shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of El Pollo Loco shares traded daily (recently around 252014.80362538). El Pollo Loco's SIR currently stands at 6.62. In other words for every 100,000 El Pollo Loco shares traded daily on the market, roughly 6620 shares are currently held short.
However El Pollo Loco's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of El Pollo Loco shares, or, against the total number of tradable El Pollo Loco shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case El Pollo Loco's short interest could be expressed as 0.05% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 El Pollo Loco shares in existence, roughly 50 shares are currently held short) or 0.086% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable El Pollo Loco shares, roughly 86 shares are currently held short).
A SIR below 10% would generally be considered to indicate a fairly optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against El Pollo Loco.
Find out more about how you can short El Pollo Loco stock.
El Pollo Loco share dividends
We're not expecting El Pollo Loco to pay a dividend over the next 12 months.
El Pollo Loco share price volatility
Over the last 12 months, El Pollo Loco's shares have ranged in value from as little as $6.1485 up to $21.46. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".
Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NASDAQ average) beta is 1, while El Pollo Loco's is 1.5736. This would suggest that El Pollo Loco's shares are more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).
El Pollo Loco overview
El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiary El Pollo Loco, Inc., develops, franchises, licenses, and operates quick-service restaurants under the El Pollo Loco name. It offers fire-grilling citrus-marinated chicken in various entrees, including specialty chicken burritos, chicken quesadillas, chicken tostada salads, and chicken tortilla soup, as well as provides 500 calorie entrees, and Pollo Bowl and Pollo salad products. As of December 31, 2020, the company operated approximately 475 company-owned and franchised restaurants in Arizona, California, Nevada, Texas, Utah, and Louisiana. It also licenses 1 restaurant in the Philippines. The company was formerly known as Chicken Acquisition Corp. and changed its name to El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. in April 2014. El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California.
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