Stephens Reaffirms “Equal Weight” Rating for Wendy’s (NASDAQ:WEN)

Wendy’s (NASDAQ:WEN)‘s stock had its “equal weight” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Stephens in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $15.00 price target on the restaurant operator’s stock. Stephens’ target price would suggest a potential upside of 4.90% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on WEN. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Wendy’s from $18.00 to $17.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Truist Financial upped their target price on Wendy’s from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $20.00 target price on shares of Wendy’s in a research report on Friday, November 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Wendy’s from $17.00 to $15.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their target price on Wendy’s from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Wendy’s has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $18.93.

Wendy’s Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WEN opened at $14.30 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 12.64. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $15.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.11. The company has a market cap of $2.91 billion, a PE ratio of 15.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.77. Wendy’s has a 12-month low of $13.72 and a 12-month high of $20.65.

Wendy’s (NASDAQ:WEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The restaurant operator reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.01. Wendy’s had a return on equity of 70.02% and a net margin of 8.76%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Wendy’s will post 0.99 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Wendy’s

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of Wendy’s by 159.6% in the third quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 6,440,880 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $112,844,000 after acquiring an additional 3,959,480 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Wendy’s by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,303,279 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $102,743,000 after acquiring an additional 458,106 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Wendy’s by 0.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,187,593 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $90,887,000 after acquiring an additional 37,801 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Wendy’s by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,033,560 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $65,747,000 after acquiring an additional 43,805 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Wendy’s by 3.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,097,836 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $54,287,000 after acquiring an additional 115,875 shares during the last quarter. 85.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Wendy’s

The Wendy’s Co engages in operating, developing, and franchising a system of quick-service restaurants. It offers hamburgers and related products, such as chicken breast sandwiches, nuggets, chili, and baked potatoes, French fries, freshly prepared salads, soft drinks, milk, coffee, frosty deserts, and kid’s meals.