JPMorgan Chase & Co. Purchases 1,025,656 Shares of Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE:UTZ) by 14.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,923,292 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,025,656 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned approximately 5.62% of Utz Brands worth $124,079,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in Utz Brands by 9.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,758,961 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,256,000 after purchasing an additional 152,868 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Utz Brands by 21.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 555,477 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,831,000 after buying an additional 97,767 shares during the last quarter. NFJ Investment Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Utz Brands in the third quarter worth approximately $1,651,000. Copeland Capital Management LLC grew its position in Utz Brands by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 3,117,478 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,820,000 after buying an additional 59,429 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Utz Brands by 3.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,548,231 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,409,000 after buying an additional 47,320 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.97% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Utz Brands

In other Utz Brands news, CEO Howard A. Friedman bought 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, with a total value of $49,914.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 265,729 shares in the company, valued at $3,762,722.64. This represents a 1.34 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Cc Collier Holdings, Llc sold 496,038 shares of the firm’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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. 16.32% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on UTZ. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Utz Brands from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Barclays cut their price target on Utz Brands from $19.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 17th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Utz Brands from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Mizuho cut their price objective 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. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their target price 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $19.25.

Utz Brands Trading Up 1.1 %

UTZ stock opened at $14.23 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 79.04, a PEG 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. Utz Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $12.71 and a 1-year high of $20.04. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $13.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.55.

Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.19 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $341.05 million during 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 period last year, the company posted $0.16 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Utz Brands, Inc. will post 0.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Utz Brands Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 24th. Investors of record on Monday, April 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.011 per share. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 7th. Utz Brands’s payout ratio is presently 133.33%.

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.