El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (LOCO) develops, franchises, licenses and operates quick-service restaurants under the name El Pollo Loco and operates under one business segment. The restaurants, which are located principally in California but also in Arizona, Nevada, Texas, and Utah, specialize in flame-grilled chicken in a variety of contemporary Mexican-influenced entrees, including specialty chicken burritos, chicken quesadillas, chicken tortilla soup, Pollo Bowls and Pollo Salads. LOCO is currently trading around $36.89 in a 52 week range of $18.48 – 41.70.
LOCO will report Q3 2014 earnings after the market close today. Considering that this is a relatively new name to hit the market, there are no previous public earnings reported by the company. For their earnings debut, market makers are implying about a +- 7.4% move in the stock for the November 7 option chain. Today, a trader bought 1378 LOCO Fri 11/7 38.0 Calls (Wkly) for $0.75. This order controls over 130,000 shares of stock, with the trader laying out $103,000 in total premium. OptionHacker indicated that volume is greater than open interest on this order, which leads us to believe that this is bullish speculation in LOCO. With the stock increasing 53.43% since the IPO on July 25th, it’s possible that this name continues to move higher after earnings.