Focus Partners Wealth Sells 1,241 Shares of Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ)

Focus Partners Wealth reduced its stake in shares of Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) by 0.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 594,260 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,241 shares during the quarter. Focus Partners Wealth’s holdings in Utz Brands were worth $9,306,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Newton One Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Utz Brands during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Utz Brands during the fourth quarter valued at about $54,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake 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 valued at $121,000 after buying an additional 4,078 shares during the last quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division bought a new position in shares of Utz Brands during the fourth quarter valued at about $169,000. Finally, Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Utz Brands during the fourth quarter valued at about $183,000. 95.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Utz Brands news, Director William Jr. Werzyn bought 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $11.81 per share, with a total value of $94,480.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 22,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $271,275.70. This trade represents a 53.44% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Howard A. Friedman bought 3,525 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $14.16 per share, with a total value of $49,914.00. Following the purchase, 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 position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders purchased 17,920 shares of company stock worth $224,156 over the last three months. Company insiders own 16.32% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on UTZ. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Utz Brands from $15.00 to $13.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Utz Brands from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. TD Cowen lowered shares of Utz Brands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $17.00 to $15.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Utz Brands from $24.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Utz Brands from $19.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $17.81.

Utz Brands Stock Performance

Utz Brands stock opened at $12.67 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. Utz Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $11.53 and a 1-year high of $18.89. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $13.33 and a 200-day moving average of $14.62. The firm has a market cap of $1.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 70.39, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.20.

Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.16. Utz Brands had a net margin of 1.13% and a return on equity of 7.92%. The business had revenue of $352.08 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $345.44 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.14 earnings per share. Utz Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Utz Brands, Inc. will post 0.85 EPS for the current year.

Utz Brands Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 7th were issued a $0.011 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 7th. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. Utz Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 75.00%.

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.