HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 2,803 Shares of Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ)

HighTower Advisors LLC cut its stake in Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) by 13.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 17,434 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,803 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Utz Brands were worth $273,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in UTZ. Newton One Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Utz Brands in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Utz Brands in the 4th quarter worth about $54,000. Moody National Bank Trust Division purchased a new stake in shares of Utz Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $169,000. M&T Bank Corp boosted its position in shares of Utz Brands by 18.9% during the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 12,678 shares of the company’s stock valued at $198,000 after acquiring an additional 2,011 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Utz Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $220,000. 95.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on UTZ. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective 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. DA Davidson cut their price objective on Utz Brands from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on Utz Brands from $21.00 to $17.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Barclays cut their target price on Utz Brands from $19.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of Utz Brands from $24.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Utz Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $19.25.

Utz Brands Stock Performance

UTZ opened at $14.04 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $13.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.54. 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 market cap of $1.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 78.00, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.05. Utz Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $12.71 and a 1-year high of $20.04.

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

Utz Brands Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 7th will be issued a $0.011 dividend. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 7th. Utz Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 133.33%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Cc Collier Holdings, Llc sold 496,038 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.40, for a total value of $6,646,909.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Howard A. Friedman purchased 3,525 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $14.16 per share, for a total transaction of $49,914.00. Following the purchase, 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 disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 16.32% 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.