Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) saw a large drop in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 5,440,000 shares, a drop of 26.1% from the February 13th total of 7,360,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,040,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.2 days. Currently, 7.8% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Utz Brands Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of UTZ opened at $13.47 on Tuesday. Utz Brands has a one year low of $12.71 and a one year high of $20.04. The company has a market cap of $1.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 74.86, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $13.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.83.

Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.19 by $0.03. Utz Brands had a net margin of 1.13% and a return on equity of 7.92%. The business had revenue of $341.05 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $349.93 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.16 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Utz Brands will post 0.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

UTZ has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. DA Davidson reduced their price target on Utz Brands from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Utz Brands from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Utz Brands from $24.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Utz Brands from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Utz Brands from $19.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.25.

Insider Activity

In other Utz Brands news, CEO Howard A. Friedman purchased 3,525 shares of Utz Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was acquired at an average price 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 trade represents a 1.34 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Cc Collier Holdings, Llc sold 496,038 shares of Utz Brands stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was 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. 17.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Utz Brands

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of UTZ. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Utz Brands by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,923,292 shares of the company’s stock worth $124,079,000 after buying an additional 1,025,656 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of Utz Brands by 20.5% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,110,873 shares of the company’s stock worth $64,376,000 after purchasing an additional 698,589 shares during the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Utz Brands by 13.5% in the fourth quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 5,208,402 shares of the company’s stock worth $81,564,000 after purchasing an additional 620,196 shares during the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. grew its stake in shares of Utz Brands by 157.9% in the fourth quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 612,441 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,591,000 after purchasing an additional 375,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Utz Brands by 19.0% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,474,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,091,000 after purchasing an additional 235,622 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.97% of the company’s stock.

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.