What Happened:

Shares of diner restaurant chain Denny’s (NASDAQ:DENN) fell 8.5% in the morning session after the company reported fourth-quarter results with revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and EPS, missing analysts' expectations. Guidance was tepid as well, with full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance below expectations. Also, the full-year domestic system-wide same-restaurant sales guidance points to a growth deceleration at 0% -3% (vs. 3.6% growth in 2023). On the other hand, Same-store sales and gross margin beat. Zooming out, this was a mixed but weaker quarter.

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What is the market telling us:

Denny's's shares are somewhat volatile and over the last year have had 5 moves greater than 5%. In context of that, today's move is indicating the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

Denny's is down 15.9% since the beginning of the year, and at $9.10 per share it is trading 28.6% below its 52-week high of $12.74 from February 2023. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Denny's's shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $517.35.

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