138,670 Shares in Utz Brands, Inc. $UTZ Purchased by Ancora Advisors LLC

Key Points

• Ancora Advisors acquired 138,670 shares of Utz Brands in the second quarter, valued at approximately $1.07 million, while institutional investors collectively owned 95.97% of the company.
• Analyst sentiment remains cautious: the stock has a consensus “Hold” rating and a $13.39 price target, despite several firms recently raising or setting targets around $14.00–$14.25.
• Utz reported quarterly EPS of $0.19, slightly ahead of expectations, while revenue reached $371.8 million and increased 1.4% year over year. The company also maintains a quarterly dividend of $0.063 per share, equivalent to an annualized yield of about 1.8%.

Ancora Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 138,670 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,068,000. Ancora Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.10% of Utz Brands at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Utz Brands by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,679,985 shares of the company's stock worth $79,718,000 after purchasing an additional 252,876 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Utz Brands by 7.3% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,085,250 shares of the company's stock valued at $76,370,000 after acquiring an additional 413,493 shares during the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Utz Brands by 17.8% in the 1st quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 4,063,561 shares of the company's stock valued at $32,183,000 after acquiring an additional 613,699 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in Utz Brands by 42.3% in the 2nd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,946,512 shares of the company's stock worth $36,979,000 after purchasing an additional 875,847 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. lifted its position in Utz Brands by 105.2% during the fourth quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 2,414,791 shares of the company's stock worth $25,066,000 after buying an additional 1,238,180 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.97% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on UTZ. Piper Sandler reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $14.25 price objective (up from $10.00) on shares of Utz Brands in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Utz Brands from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Saturday, July 25th. UBS Group reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $14.25 target price on shares of Utz Brands in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Barclays cut shares of Utz Brands from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $14.00 price target for the company. in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut Utz Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $14.25 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $13.39.

Utz Brands Stock Down 0.1%

Utz Brands stock opened at $14.21 on Friday. Utz Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $6.78 and a fifty-two week high of $14.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 1.06. The company has a market capitalization of $2.04 billion, a P/E ratio of -43.05 and a beta of 0.74. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $11.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.11.

Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.18 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $371.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $374.18 million. Utz Brands had a positive return on equity of 8.97% and a negative net margin of 2.00%.The firm's quarterly revenue was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.17 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Utz Brands, Inc. will post 0.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Utz Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, June 22nd were given a $0.063 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 22nd. This represents a $0.25 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. Utz Brands's dividend payout ratio is -75.76%.

Utz Brands Profile

Utz Brands, Inc is a leading U.S. manufacturer and distributor of salty snack foods, offering a wide range of products including potato chips, pretzels, cheese snacks, popcorn and tortilla chips. Headquartered in Hanover, Pennsylvania, the company markets its snacks under several well-known brands and serves grocery, mass merchandise, club, convenience and online retailers throughout the United States.

Founded in 1921 by Bill and Salie Utz as a small country store operation, the business expanded gradually through direct delivery to local customers and sales to regional grocers.

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