Utz Brands, Inc. $UTZ Stake Increased by HighTower Advisors LLC

HighTower Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) by 47.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,643 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,209 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Utz Brands were worth $361,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of UTZ. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Utz Brands in the fourth quarter worth $339,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Utz Brands by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,400,014 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,923,000 after acquiring an additional 116,376 shares during the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Utz Brands by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 40,040 shares of the company’s stock worth $627,000 after acquiring an additional 2,249 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its stake in shares of Utz Brands by 112.7% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 7,697 shares of the company’s stock worth $121,000 after acquiring an additional 4,078 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Utz Brands by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 62,867 shares of the company’s stock worth $985,000 after acquiring an additional 4,176 shares during the last quarter. 95.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Utz Brands Trading Down 0.0%

Utz Brands stock opened at $13.41 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The company has a market capitalization of $1.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.84, a PEG ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.03. Utz Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $11.53 and a one year high of $18.89. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $13.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $13.34.

Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $366.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $360.55 million. Utz Brands had a return on equity of 7.81% and a net margin of 1.27%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.19 earnings per share. Utz Brands has set its FY 2025 guidance at 0.820-0.850 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Utz Brands, Inc. will post 0.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Utz Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were given a dividend of $0.061 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. This is a positive change from Utz Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.01. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. Utz Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 114.29%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Utz Brands from $13.50 to $15.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Utz Brands from $17.00 to $16.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $17.29.

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.