Jennison Associates LLC Acquires 483,906 Shares of Utz Brands, Inc. $UTZ

Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) by 31.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,004,665 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 483,906 shares during the quarter. Jennison Associates LLC owned 1.42% of Utz Brands worth $25,159,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC boosted its position in Utz Brands by 37.6% in the second quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 5,481 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 1,497 shares in the last quarter. Diversify Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Utz Brands by 11.5% in the first quarter. Diversify Wealth Management LLC now owns 18,632 shares of the company’s stock valued at $249,000 after buying an additional 1,918 shares in the last quarter. Outfitter Financial LLC boosted its position in Utz Brands by 3.8% in the first quarter. Outfitter Financial LLC now owns 54,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $763,000 after buying an additional 1,970 shares in the last quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its position in Utz Brands by 7.1% in the first quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 30,237 shares of the company’s stock valued at $426,000 after buying an additional 2,012 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Bank & Trust lifted its position in shares of Utz Brands by 15.2% during the second quarter. First Bank & Trust now owns 16,361 shares of the company’s stock worth $205,000 after purchasing an additional 2,163 shares in the last quarter. 95.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Utz Brands

In related news, Director Christina Choi sold 5,703 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.63, for a total transaction of $77,731.89. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 33,710 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $459,467.30. The trade was a 14.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 16.32% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Utz Brands Trading Down 12.6%

UTZ opened at $10.45 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The company has a market cap of $1.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.02. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $12.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $13.00. Utz Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $10.19 and a fifty-two week high of $18.29.

Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23. The business had revenue of $377.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $374.25 million. Utz Brands had a net margin of 1.27% and a return on equity of 7.81%. Utz Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.21 earnings per share. Utz Brands has set its FY 2025 guidance at 0.824-0.847 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Utz Brands, Inc. will post 0.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Utz Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th were paid a dividend of $0.061 per share. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 15th. Utz Brands’s payout ratio is 114.29%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on UTZ shares. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Utz Brands from $15.00 to $13.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Utz Brands in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Utz Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $17.07.

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.