SG Americas Securities LLC Lowers Holdings in The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN)

SG Americas Securities LLC decreased its position in The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN) by 26.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 30,022 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 11,072 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in Wendy’s were worth $526,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of WEN. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Wendy’s by 6.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,097,095 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $397,469,000 after purchasing an additional 1,273,140 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Wendy’s by 76.8% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,813,786 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $115,562,000 after buying an additional 2,960,526 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its holdings in Wendy’s by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 5,344,118 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $100,683,000 after buying an additional 111,626 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Wendy’s by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,094,694 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $69,446,000 after buying an additional 70,514 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its position in Wendy’s by 113.6% in the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 3,491,376 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $59,214,000 after buying an additional 1,856,970 shares during the last quarter. 85.96% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Wendy’s from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Wendy’s from $20.00 to $18.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Wendy’s from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Wolfe Research upgraded Wendy’s to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Wendy’s from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.12.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Wendy’s news, Director Matthew H. Peltz sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.18, for a total transaction of $17,180,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 14,943,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $256,728,745.88. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 17.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wendy’s Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of Wendy’s stock opened at $19.52 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 12.01, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.17. The company has a fifty day moving average of $17.33 and a 200 day moving average of $17.61. The company has a market capitalization of $4.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.80. The Wendy’s Company has a fifty-two week low of $15.61 and a fifty-two week high of $20.65.

Wendy’s (NASDAQ:WEN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.01). Wendy’s had a return on equity of 67.74% and a net margin of 9.18%. The business had revenue of $570.73 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $577.15 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.28 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Wendy’s Company will post 0.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wendy’s Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.12%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 3rd. Wendy’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 101.01%.

Wendy’s Company Profile

The Wendy's Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a quick-service restaurant company in the United States and internationally. It operates through Wendy's U.S., Wendy's International, and Global Real Estate & Development segments. The company is involved in operating, developing, and franchising a system of quick-service restaurants specializing in hamburger sandwiches.