TD Cowen Cuts Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) Price Target to $17.00

Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) had its target price decreased by TD Cowen from $21.00 to $17.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. TD Cowen currently has a buy rating on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on UTZ. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Utz Brands from $24.00 to $21.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Utz Brands from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Utz Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.80.

Utz Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:UTZ opened at $13.45 on Wednesday. Utz Brands has a 1 year low of $13.37 and a 1 year high of $20.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -70.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $16.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.63.

Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.01. Utz Brands had a positive return on equity of 7.25% and a negative net margin of 0.99%. The company had revenue of $365.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $363.98 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.17 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Utz Brands will post 0.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Utz Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a $0.061 dividend. This is a boost from Utz Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Utz Brands’s dividend payout ratio is -126.32%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Cary Devore sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.32, for a total value of $519,600.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 451,117 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,813,346.44. This represents a 6.24 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Cc Collier Holdings, Llc sold 2,815,404 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.29, for a total transaction of $48,678,335.16. Following the sale, the insider now owns 496,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,576,497.02. This trade represents a 85.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 17.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Utz Brands

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Utz Brands by 19.0% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,474,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,091,000 after acquiring an additional 235,622 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Utz Brands by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,758,961 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,256,000 after purchasing an additional 152,868 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV acquired a new stake in Utz Brands during the second quarter worth approximately $1,981,000. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in Utz Brands by 21.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 555,477 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,831,000 after purchasing an additional 97,767 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NFJ Investment Group LLC acquired a new position in Utz Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,651,000. Institutional investors own 95.97% of the company’s stock.

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.