Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC Acquires 27,558 Shares of The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN)

Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN) by 12.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 245,595 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 27,558 shares during the quarter. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC’s holdings in Wendy’s were worth $4,303,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Wendy’s during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $194,000. GW Henssler & Associates Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Wendy’s during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $187,000. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Wendy’s by 72.0% during the 3rd quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 66,843 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,171,000 after acquiring an additional 27,989 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Wendy’s by 3.8% in the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 26,865 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $471,000 after buying an additional 995 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue grew its stake in shares of Wendy’s by 7.3% in the third quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 19,827 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $347,000 after buying an additional 1,345 shares in the last quarter. 85.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on WEN. Loop Capital reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $26.00 target price on shares of Wendy’s in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Barclays decreased 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 note on Friday, August 2nd. Wolfe Research raised shares of Wendy’s to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Wendy’s from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Wendy’s from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. One 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 MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.36.

Wendy’s Trading Up 2.9 %

Shares of Wendy’s stock opened at $19.66 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $18.03 and a 200-day moving average of $17.72. The stock has a market cap of $4.00 billion, a PE ratio of 20.69, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.79. The Wendy’s Company has a 52-week low of $15.61 and a 52-week high of $20.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 12.64, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.10.

Wendy’s (NASDAQ:WEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The restaurant operator reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25. Wendy’s had a net margin of 8.76% and a return on equity of 70.02%. The company had revenue of $566.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $560.50 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.27 earnings per share. Wendy’s’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that The Wendy’s Company will post 0.98 EPS for the current year.

Wendy’s Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.09%. Wendy’s’s dividend payout ratio is 105.26%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Matthew H. Peltz sold 1,000,000 shares of the company’s 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 sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 17.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Wendy’s

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.