Nicholas Company Inc. Cuts Position in The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN)

Nicholas Company Inc. lessened its holdings in The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 193,600 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 1,560 shares during the period. Nicholas Company Inc. owned approximately 0.09% of Wendy’s worth $3,156,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of WEN. Point72 Asset Management L.P. grew its holdings in Wendy’s by 159.6% during the third quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 6,440,880 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $112,844,000 after purchasing an additional 3,959,480 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in Wendy’s during the fourth quarter valued at $13,358,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Wendy’s by 93.0% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,591,281 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $25,938,000 after purchasing an additional 766,910 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Wendy’s by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,303,279 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $102,743,000 after purchasing an additional 458,106 shares during the period. Finally, Citigroup Inc. grew its holdings in Wendy’s by 1,653.5% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 376,978 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $6,605,000 after purchasing an additional 355,480 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.96% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on WEN. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $17.00 price objective on shares of Wendy’s in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on Wendy’s from $17.00 to $16.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. UBS Group raised their price target on Wendy’s from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. Truist Financial cut their price target on Wendy’s from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Argus raised Wendy’s to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $18.08.

Wendy’s Trading Up 0.7 %

NASDAQ WEN opened at $15.35 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $14.98 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $16.88. The Wendy’s Company has a twelve month low of $13.72 and a twelve month high of $20.65. The company has a quick ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 12.48. The company has a market capitalization of $3.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.16, a PEG ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.73.

Wendy’s (NASDAQ:WEN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The restaurant operator reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $574.27 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $564.17 million. Wendy’s had a return on equity of 75.56% and a net margin of 8.65%. Research analysts forecast that The Wendy’s Company will post 0.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wendy’s Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.51%. Wendy’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 105.26%.

Wendy’s Company Profile

The Wendy’s Co engages in operating, developing, and franchising a system of quick-service restaurants. It offers hamburgers and related products, such as chicken breast sandwiches, nuggets, chili, and baked potatoes, French fries, freshly prepared salads, soft drinks, milk, coffee, frosty deserts, and kid’s meals.