Dine Brands Global, Inc. (NYSE:DIN) Short Interest Up 9.3% in December

Dine Brands Global, Inc. (NYSE:DIN) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,880,000 shares, a growth of 9.3% from the November 30th total of 1,720,000 shares. Currently, 12.6% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 571,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.3 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DIN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Truist Financial reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $37.00 target price (down previously from $66.00) on shares of Dine Brands Global in a report on Friday, October 4th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $47.00 price objective on shares of Dine Brands Global in a research report on Friday, November 15th. KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of Dine Brands Global from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 18th. CL King lowered shares of Dine Brands Global from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Dine Brands Global from $51.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.71.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Dine Brands Global by 164.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 95,399 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,979,000 after buying an additional 59,360 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Dine Brands Global in the third quarter valued at $686,000. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in shares of Dine Brands Global by 135.4% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 35,946 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,123,000 after acquiring an additional 20,673 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Dine Brands Global by 1.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 349,949 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $10,932,000 after acquiring an additional 3,584 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Harvest Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Dine Brands Global by 11.6% during the 3rd quarter. Harvest Investment Advisors LLC now owns 32,591 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,018,000 after purchasing an additional 3,395 shares in the last quarter. 92.83% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Dine Brands Global Price Performance

Shares of DIN stock traded down $0.31 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $30.10. 474,979 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 442,885. The firm has a market cap of $458.90 million, a PE ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.73. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $32.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $32.57. Dine Brands Global has a 1-year low of $28.25 and a 1-year high of $51.35.

Dine Brands Global (NYSE:DIN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.10. Dine Brands Global had a negative return on equity of 37.75% and a net margin of 11.31%. The company had revenue of $195.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $198.40 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. Dine Brands Global’s quarterly revenue was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Dine Brands Global will post 5.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Dine Brands Global Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 20th will be given a $0.51 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 20th. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.78%. Dine Brands Global’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.94%.

About Dine Brands Global

Dine Brands Global, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, owns, franchises, and operates restaurants in the United States and internationally. The company operates through six segments: Applebee's Franchise Operations, International House of Pancakes (IHOP) Franchise Solutions, Fuzzy's franchise operations, Rental Operations, Financing Operations, and Company-Operated Restaurant Operations.