Fifth Third Bancorp Purchases 863 Shares of The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN)

Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its position in shares of The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN) by 58.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,352 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 863 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Wendy’s were worth $46,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WEN. Trian Fund Management L.P. grew its holdings in Wendy’s by 60.9% during the 3rd quarter. Trian Fund Management L.P. now owns 33,350,743 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $680,689,000 after purchasing an additional 12,618,115 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in Wendy’s by 32.8% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 20,395,661 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $444,218,000 after purchasing an additional 5,039,239 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in Wendy’s by 370.9% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 2,879,282 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $62,711,000 after acquiring an additional 2,267,900 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Wendy’s in the 4th quarter worth about $44,445,000. Finally, Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC grew its stake in Wendy’s by 386.3% in the 4th quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 1,586,996 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $35,914,000 after acquiring an additional 1,260,639 shares in the last quarter. 85.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Wedbush dropped their target price on shares of Wendy’s from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Wendy’s from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $24.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Barclays downgraded shares of Wendy’s from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $23.00 to $21.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. Gordon Haskett downgraded shares of Wendy’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $21.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, Stephens dropped their target price on shares of Wendy’s from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Wendy’s presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $22.47.

Insider Activity at Wendy’s

In other Wendy’s news, Director Kenneth W. Gilbert sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.07, for a total value of $81,315.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 31,304 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $565,663.28. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 20.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wendy’s Trading Down 0.8 %

NASDAQ:WEN opened at $18.70 on Friday. The Wendy’s Company has a 52 week low of $17.64 and a 52 week high of $23.90. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $18.55 and a 200 day moving average of $19.05. The company has a quick ratio of 2.18, a current ratio of 2.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.08, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.82.

Wendy’s (NASDAQ:WEN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The restaurant operator reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by ($0.02). Wendy’s had a net margin of 9.37% and a return on equity of 56.24%. The firm had revenue of $540.65 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $546.47 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.22 EPS. The company’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Wendy’s Company will post 0.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wendy’s Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 1st were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.35%. Wendy’s’s payout ratio is 102.04%.

Wendy’s Company Profile

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.