Trexquant Investment LP Sells 31,030 Shares of Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ)

Trexquant Investment LP lowered its stake in shares of Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) by 35.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 55,916 shares of the company’s stock after selling 31,030 shares during the period. Trexquant Investment LP’s holdings in Utz Brands were worth $876,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in UTZ. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Utz Brands by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,561,986 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,467,000 after buying an additional 13,755 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Utz Brands by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,923,292 shares of the company’s stock valued at $124,079,000 after acquiring an additional 1,025,656 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Utz Brands by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 39,879 shares of the company’s stock worth $624,000 after acquiring an additional 1,789 shares during the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new stake in shares of Utz Brands in the 4th quarter worth $258,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in shares of Utz Brands by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 219,614 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,439,000 after purchasing an additional 16,175 shares during the last quarter. 95.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Utz Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE UTZ opened at $13.19 on Friday. 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 stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $13.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.26. Utz Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $12.15 and a 1-year high of $20.04. The firm has a market cap of $1.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 73.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.10.

Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.19 by $0.03. Utz Brands had a return on equity of 7.92% and a net margin of 1.13%. The company had revenue of $341.05 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $349.93 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.16 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Utz Brands, Inc. will post 0.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Utz Brands Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 7th will be paid a $0.011 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 7th. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.33%. Utz Brands’s payout ratio is 133.33%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Utz Brands from $24.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays cut 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. TD Cowen decreased their price target on Utz Brands from $21.00 to $17.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Utz Brands from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their target price on Utz Brands from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.25.

Insider Activity

In other Utz Brands news, CEO Howard A. Friedman acquired 3,525 shares of Utz Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $14.16 per share, for a total transaction of $49,914.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 265,729 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,762,722.64. This represents a 1.34 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Cc Collier Holdings, Llc sold 496,038 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.40, for a total value of $6,646,909.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 16.32% of the company’s stock.

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.