William Blair Forecasts El Pollo Loco FY2026 Earnings

El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOCO) – Investment analysts at William Blair issued their FY2026 earnings per share estimates for El Pollo Loco in a research note issued to investors on Monday, January 20th. William Blair analyst S. Zackfia anticipates that the restaurant operator will earn $0.99 per share for the year. The consensus estimate for El Pollo Loco’s current full-year earnings is $0.83 per share.

Separately, StockNews.com lowered El Pollo Loco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday.

El Pollo Loco Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LOCO opened at $11.75 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $351.80 million, a PE ratio of 14.87 and a beta of 1.47. El Pollo Loco has a fifty-two week low of $8.17 and a fifty-two week high of $14.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a current ratio of 0.31. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $11.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $12.48.

El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The restaurant operator reported $0.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $120.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $121.03 million. El Pollo Loco had a return on equity of 10.34% and a net margin of 5.11%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.19 earnings per share.

Institutional Trading of El Pollo Loco

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp lifted its stake in El Pollo Loco by 2.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 593,425 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $8,130,000 after acquiring an additional 14,692 shares during the period. Biglari Sardar lifted its stake in El Pollo Loco by 307.7% in the third quarter. Biglari Sardar now owns 489,247 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $6,703,000 after acquiring an additional 369,247 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in El Pollo Loco by 22.5% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 411,298 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,635,000 after acquiring an additional 75,542 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in El Pollo Loco by 384.0% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 175,670 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,987,000 after acquiring an additional 139,375 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC raised its holdings in El Pollo Loco by 5.3% in the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 167,003 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,288,000 after purchasing an additional 8,442 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.28% of the company’s stock.

El Pollo Loco Company Profile

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 operates and franchises restaurants located in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Utah, and Louisiana. It also licenses its brand to restaurants in the Philippines.