Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) Given Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts

Shares of Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the eight analysts that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $17.81.

UTZ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group lowered their price target on Utz Brands from $15.00 to $13.50 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 2nd. TD Cowen cut shares of Utz Brands from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $17.00 to $15.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. DA Davidson raised shares of Utz Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $16.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on shares of Utz Brands from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 24th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Utz Brands

In other Utz Brands news, Director William Jr. Werzyn purchased 8,000 shares of Utz Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $11.81 per share, with a total value of $94,480.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 22,970 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $271,275.70. This trade represents a 53.44% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Timothy Brown acquired 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $11.96 per share, with a total value of $59,800.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 67,573 shares in the company, valued at $808,173.08. This represents a 7.99% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 16.32% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Utz Brands

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in UTZ. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in Utz Brands by 38.0% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 5,671,757 shares of the company's stock worth $79,858,000 after purchasing an additional 1,560,884 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Utz Brands by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,923,292 shares of the company's stock worth $124,079,000 after acquiring an additional 1,025,656 shares in the last quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Utz Brands in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $11,697,000. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Utz Brands by 221.7% in the 1st quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 914,325 shares of the company's stock valued at $12,874,000 after acquiring an additional 630,149 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Champlain Investment Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Utz Brands by 13.5% during the 4th quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 5,208,402 shares of the company's stock valued at $81,564,000 after acquiring an additional 620,196 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.97% of the company's stock.

Utz Brands Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of Utz Brands stock opened at $13.23 on Wednesday. Utz Brands has a 1 year low of $11.53 and a 1 year high of $18.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $13.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $13.94. The company has a market capitalization of $1.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.18.

Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.16. Utz Brands had a net margin of 1.94% and a return on equity of 8.05%. The business had revenue of $352.08 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $345.44 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.14 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Utz Brands will post 0.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Utz Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 3rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be given a $0.061 dividend. This is an increase from Utz Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.01. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.84%. Utz Brands's dividend payout ratio is presently 75.00%.

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.

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