Ballentine Partners LLC Makes New Investment in Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ)

Ballentine Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 14,075 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $220,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board purchased a new stake in Utz Brands during the second quarter worth about $80,000. nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new position in Utz Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $142,000. Moody National Bank Trust Division acquired a new position in Utz Brands during the fourth quarter worth $169,000. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new stake in Utz Brands during the second quarter worth $185,000. Finally, Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new stake in Utz Brands in the third quarter valued at $282,000. 95.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on UTZ shares. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Utz Brands from $21.00 to $17.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of Utz Brands from $24.00 to $21.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Barclays cut their price objective on Utz Brands from $19.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Utz Brands from $24.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Utz Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Cary Devore sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.32, for a total value of $519,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 451,117 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,813,346.44. This represents a 6.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Cc Collier Holdings, Llc sold 2,815,404 shares of Utz Brands stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.29, for a total transaction of $48,678,335.16. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 496,038 shares in the company, valued at $8,576,497.02. The trade was a 85.02 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 17.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Utz Brands Stock Down 4.9 %

Shares of NYSE:UTZ opened at $13.22 on Friday. Utz Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $13.20 and a 12-month high of $20.04. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $15.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.44. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The firm has a market cap of $1.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -69.56, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.03.

Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $365.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $363.98 million. Utz Brands had a negative net margin of 0.99% and a positive return on equity of 7.25%. Utz Brands’s revenue was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.17 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Utz Brands, Inc. will post 0.74 EPS for the current 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 issued 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 1.85%. This is a boost from Utz Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. Utz Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -126.32%.

Utz Brands Company Profile

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.