Jennison Associates LLC Sells 541,421 Shares of Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ)

Jennison Associates LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) by 25.9% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,545,257 shares of the company’s stock after selling 541,421 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC’s holdings in Utz Brands were worth $27,351,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Fifth Third Bancorp bought a new position in Utz Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at $44,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new position in shares of Utz Brands in the second quarter worth about $80,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Utz Brands in the 2nd quarter worth about $103,000. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in Utz Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at about $142,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new stake in Utz Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at about $185,000. 95.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Utz Brands Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE UTZ opened at $16.91 on Friday. Utz Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $12.99 and a 1-year high of $20.04. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $17.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.38 billion, a P/E ratio of -89.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.85.

Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.01. Utz Brands had a negative net margin of 0.99% and a positive return on equity of 7.25%. The business had revenue of $365.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $363.98 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.17 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Utz Brands, Inc. will post 0.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Utz Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a None dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a $0.011 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This represents a yield of 1.3%. Utz Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -126.32%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Cary Devore sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.32, for a total transaction of $519,600.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 451,117 shares in the company, valued at $7,813,346.44. This represents a 6.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Cc Collier Holdings, Llc sold 2,815,404 shares of Utz Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.29, for a total transaction of $48,678,335.16. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 496,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,576,497.02. This trade represents a 85.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 17.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on UTZ. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Utz Brands from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Utz Brands from $24.00 to $21.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of Utz Brands in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.22.

Utz Brands 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.