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

Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) CEO Howard A. Friedman acquired 3,525 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $14.16 per share, with a total value of $49,914.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 265,729 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,762,722.64. This trade represents a 1.34 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Utz Brands Price Performance

Utz Brands stock opened at $13.96 on Tuesday. Utz Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $12.71 and a 52-week high of $20.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 77.54, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $14.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $16.17. 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 released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by $0.03. Utz Brands had a net margin of 1.13% and a return on equity of 7.92%. The business had revenue of $341.05 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $349.93 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.16 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Utz Brands, Inc. will post 0.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Utz Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.061 per share. This is a positive change from Utz Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.75%. Utz Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 133.33%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on UTZ. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Utz Brands from $21.00 to $17.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of Utz Brands from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Barclays cut their price target 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. Piper Sandler cut their price target 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, DA Davidson cut their price target on shares of Utz Brands from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Utz Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $19.30.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Utz Brands

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of UTZ. Newton One Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Utz Brands during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Utz Brands during the fourth quarter worth $54,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its position in shares of Utz Brands by 112.7% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 7,697 shares of the company’s stock valued at $121,000 after acquiring an additional 4,078 shares during the last quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division acquired a new position in shares of Utz Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $169,000. Finally, Freestone Grove Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of Utz Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $183,000. 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.