Howard A. Friedman Acquires 3,525 Shares of Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) Stock

Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) CEO Howard A. Friedman acquired 3,525 shares of Utz Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $14.16 per share, with a total value of $49,914.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 265,729 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,762,722.64. The trade was a 1.34 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Utz Brands Stock Up 2.0 %

Utz Brands stock opened at $14.19 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 78.81, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. Utz Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $12.71 and a twelve month high of $20.04. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $14.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.15.

Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.19 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $341.05 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $349.93 million. Utz Brands had a net margin of 1.13% and a return on equity of 7.92%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.16 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Utz Brands, Inc. will post 0.85 EPS for the current year.

Utz Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.061 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This is a boost from Utz Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. Utz Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 133.33%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Newton One Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Utz Brands during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Utz Brands during the fourth quarter worth approximately $54,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its holdings in shares of Utz Brands by 112.7% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 7,697 shares of the company’s stock worth $121,000 after purchasing an additional 4,078 shares during the period. Moody National Bank Trust Division bought a new position in shares of Utz Brands during the fourth quarter worth approximately $169,000. Finally, Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Utz Brands during the fourth quarter worth approximately $183,000. 95.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on UTZ. DA Davidson reduced their price objective on shares of Utz Brands from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Utz Brands from $24.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Utz Brands from $19.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Utz Brands from $21.00 to $17.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Utz Brands from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Utz Brands has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $19.30.

Utz Brands Company Profile

Utz Brands, Inc engages in manufacture, marketing, and distribution of snack foods. It offers a range of salty snacks, including salty snacks, including potato chips, tortilla chips, pretzels, cheese snacks, pork skins, veggie snacks, pub/party mixes, tortilla chips, salsa and dips, ready-to-eat popcorn, and other snacks under the Utz, Zapp’s, ON THE BORDER, Golden Flake, Boulder Canyon, Hawaiian, TORTIYAHS!, etc.