Two Sigma Investments LP Buys Shares of 32,684 Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ)

Two Sigma Investments LP bought a new stake in shares of Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 32,684 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $512,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Snowden Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Utz Brands by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. Snowden Capital Advisors LLC now owns 35,318 shares of the company’s stock valued at $555,000 after buying an additional 2,282 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Utz Brands by 51.1% during the 4th quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 18,569 shares of the company’s stock worth $291,000 after purchasing an additional 6,279 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Utz Brands by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 37,280 shares of the company’s stock worth $584,000 after purchasing an additional 1,596 shares during the period. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Utz Brands by 250.8% during the 4th quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 89,083 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,395,000 after purchasing an additional 63,692 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets purchased a new position in shares of Utz Brands during the 4th quarter worth $196,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.97% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director William Jr. Werzyn acquired 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $11.81 per share, for a total transaction of $94,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 22,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $271,275.70. The trade was a 53.44% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Timothy Brown acquired 5,000 shares of Utz Brands stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $11.96 per share, for a total transaction of $59,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 67,573 shares in the company, valued at approximately $808,173.08. This trade represents a 7.99% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 16.32% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. DA Davidson raised Utz Brands from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $16.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. UBS Group decreased their price target on Utz Brands from $15.00 to $13.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Utz Brands from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. Mizuho cut their price target on Utz Brands from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, TD Cowen cut Utz Brands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $17.00 to $15.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $17.81.

Utz Brands Stock Performance

Shares of UTZ stock opened at $14.00 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 77.75, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.21. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $13.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $14.08. Utz Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $11.53 and a 52 week high of $18.89.

Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16. Utz Brands had a net margin of 1.13% and a return on equity of 7.92%. The business had revenue of $352.08 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $345.44 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.14 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Utz Brands, Inc. will post 0.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Utz Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th will be given a dividend of $0.061 per share. This is a positive change from Utz Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.01. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th. Utz Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 75.00%.

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.