Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.06

Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, December 6th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be paid a dividend of 0.061 per share on Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.44%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 16th. This is a boost from Utz Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06.

Utz Brands has raised its dividend by an average of 27.5% annually over the last three years. Utz Brands has a payout ratio of 28.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Utz Brands to earn $0.83 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.24 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 28.9%.

Utz Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE UTZ traded up $0.10 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $16.92. 358,669 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 750,536. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -88.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.01. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $17.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.21. Utz Brands has a 52 week low of $13.29 and a 52 week high of $20.04.

Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $365.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $363.98 million. Utz Brands had a positive return on equity of 7.25% and a negative net margin of 0.99%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.17 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Utz Brands will post 0.73 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Utz Brands

In related news, insider Cc Collier Holdings, Llc sold 2,815,404 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.29, for a total transaction of $48,678,335.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 496,038 shares in the company, valued at $8,576,497.02. This represents a 85.02 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Cary Devore sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.32, for a total transaction of $519,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 17.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on UTZ. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Utz Brands from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Mizuho cut their price target on Utz Brands from $24.00 to $21.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Utz Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.22.

Utz Brands Company 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.