Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) CEO Acquires $49,914.00 in Stock

Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) CEO Howard A. Friedman bought 3,525 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was bought at an average price of $14.16 per share, for a total transaction of $49,914.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 265,729 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,762,722.64. This represents a 1.34 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Utz Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE UTZ opened at $14.19 on Wednesday. Utz Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $12.71 and a twelve month high of $20.04. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $14.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $16.15. The company has a market capitalization of $2.00 billion, a PE 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 (NYSE:UTZ) last posted 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. Utz Brands had a net margin of 1.13% and a return on equity of 7.92%. The firm had revenue of $341.05 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $349.93 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.16 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Utz Brands, Inc. will post 0.85 EPS for the current year.

Utz Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.061 dividend. This is an increase from Utz Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Utz Brands’s payout ratio is 133.33%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Utz Brands

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Newton One Investments LLC bought a new stake in Utz Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Utz Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $54,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its stake in Utz Brands by 112.7% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 7,697 shares of the company’s stock valued at $121,000 after purchasing an additional 4,078 shares in the last quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division bought a new stake in Utz Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $169,000. Finally, Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new stake in Utz Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $183,000. 95.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on UTZ shares. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Utz Brands from $24.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. DA Davidson cut their price target on shares of Utz Brands from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of Utz Brands from $21.00 to $17.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Utz Brands from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of Utz Brands from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.30.

About Utz Brands

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.