Jennison Associates LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Utz Brands, Inc. $UTZ

Jennison Associates LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) by 5.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,830,224 shares of the company’s stock after selling 113,533 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC owned 1.28% of Utz Brands worth $18,998,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in UTZ. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 875,847 shares in the last quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Utz Brands by 93.2% in the 3rd quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC now owns 1,688,976 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,521,000 after buying an additional 814,555 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Utz Brands by 40.8% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,022,709 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,480,000 after buying an additional 585,952 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG grew its stake in shares of Utz Brands by 39.7% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,702,641 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,687,000 after buying an additional 483,638 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of Utz Brands by 7.3% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,085,250 shares of the company’s stock worth $76,370,000 after buying an additional 413,493 shares in the last quarter. 95.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

UTZ has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Zacks Research raised shares of Utz Brands from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Utz Brands from $15.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $15.00 price objective on shares of Utz Brands in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Utz Brands from $10.00 to $8.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Utz Brands in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $12.06.

Utz Brands Trading Down 2.4%

Shares of UTZ opened at $7.77 on Friday. Utz Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $7.11 and a 1-year high of $14.67. The company has a 50-day moving average of $7.99 and a 200 day moving average of $9.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 777.28, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26. Utz Brands had a net margin of 0.06% and a return on equity of 8.57%. The company had revenue of $342.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $346.99 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.22 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. Utz Brands has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.771-0.795 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Utz Brands, Inc. will post 0.77 EPS for the current year.

Utz Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, April 13th were issued a dividend of $0.063 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 13th. This represents a $0.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.2%. Utz Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2,500.00%.

About Utz Brands

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.