El Pollo Loco Declares Special Dividend Of $1.50; Stock Jumps 15%

(RTTNews) - Shares of El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (LOCO) jumped nearly 15% in extended hours on Tuesday after the company declares special dividend of $1.50 per share and approves $20 million share repurchase program.

The fire-grilled chicken restaurant chain announced that the Board of Directors declared a special dividend of $1.50 per share, which is payable on November 9, 2022 to shareholders of record at the close of business on October 24, 2022.

Further, the Board approved a new share repurchase program with authorization to purchase up to $20 million of shares. The share repurchase program is effective immediately.

Michael Maselli, Chairman of the Company board of directors, commented, "This announcement underscores our Board's confidence in our business and its dedication to stockholder value creation. Despite the challenges over the last couple of years we have continued to build our balance sheet and believe it is time to once again return capital to our shareholders reflecting our low leverage, asset light growth strategy and anticipated positive cash flow in the coming years. Based on these factors we are in a good position to declare this special dividend and initiate this buyback program."

LOCO closed Tuesday's trading at $9.10, down $0.09 or 0.98%, on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, gained $1.36 or 14.95% in the after-hours trading.