Voya Investment Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ)

Voya Investment Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) by 6.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 19,963 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,437 shares during the quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Utz Brands were worth $313,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of UTZ. Newton One Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Utz Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its stake in shares of Utz Brands by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 95,103 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,489,000 after purchasing an additional 1,757 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Utz Brands by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 39,879 shares of the company’s stock worth $624,000 after acquiring an additional 1,789 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp boosted its position in Utz Brands by 18.9% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 12,678 shares of the company’s stock worth $198,000 after purchasing an additional 2,011 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank grew its stake in Utz Brands by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 138,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,161,000 after acquiring an additional 2,100 shares during the last quarter. 95.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Utz Brands

In other Utz Brands news, CEO Howard A. Friedman bought 3,525 shares of Utz Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $14.16 per share, for a total transaction of $49,914.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 265,729 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,762,722.64. This represents a 1.34% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Cc Collier Holdings, Llc sold 496,038 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.40, for a total value of $6,646,909.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have purchased a total of 17,920 shares of company stock worth $224,156 over the last ninety days. 16.32% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on UTZ. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Utz Brands from $24.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Utz Brands from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. Mizuho dropped their price target on Utz Brands from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. 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, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Utz Brands from $19.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Utz Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $17.81.

Utz Brands Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of NYSE UTZ opened at $12.47 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $13.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $14.66. Utz Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $11.53 and a 52-week high of $18.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 69.28, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56.

Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.16. The company had revenue of $352.08 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $345.44 million. Utz Brands had a return on equity of 7.92% and a net margin of 1.13%. The business’s revenue was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.14 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Utz Brands, Inc. will post 0.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Utz Brands Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 24th. Investors of record on Monday, April 7th were given a $0.011 dividend. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 7th. Utz Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 75.00%.

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.