Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) CEO Howard A. Friedman Purchases 3,525 Shares

Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) CEO Howard A. Friedman purchased 3,525 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was bought at an average price of $14.16 per share, with a total value of $49,914.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 265,729 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,762,722.64. The trade was a 1.34 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Utz Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Utz Brands stock opened at $13.75 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.94 billion, a PE ratio of 76.39, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.21. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $14.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.13. Utz Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $12.71 and a one year high of $20.04.

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

Utz Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were given a $0.061 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.77%. This is a positive change from Utz Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. Utz Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 133.33%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

UTZ has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Mizuho reduced their target price on Utz Brands from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. DA Davidson reduced their target price on Utz Brands from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on Utz Brands from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Barclays reduced their target price on Utz Brands from $19.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Utz Brands from $24.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Utz Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.30.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Utz Brands

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Utz Brands by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,923,292 shares of the company’s stock valued at $124,079,000 after buying an additional 1,025,656 shares during the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC boosted its position in Utz Brands by 13.5% in the fourth quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 5,208,402 shares of the company’s stock valued at $81,564,000 after buying an additional 620,196 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in Utz Brands by 20.5% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,110,873 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,376,000 after buying an additional 698,589 shares during the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Utz Brands by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 3,117,478 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,820,000 after buying an additional 59,429 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its position in Utz Brands by 9.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,758,961 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,256,000 after buying an additional 152,868 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.97% of the company’s stock.

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.