Pallas Capital Advisors LLC Buys New Shares in The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN)

Pallas Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 38,854 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $702,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WEN. Salomon & Ludwin LLC increased its stake in Wendy’s by 378.0% during the first quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 1,568 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 1,240 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of Wendy’s in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Wendy’s by 483.2% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,872 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 1,551 shares during the period. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Wendy’s by 145.8% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 2,116 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 1,255 shares during the period. Finally, Mather Group LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of Wendy’s in the first quarter worth about $44,000. 85.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on WEN. UBS Group upped their target price on Wendy’s from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Truist Financial reduced their price target on Wendy’s from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Wendy’s from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on Wendy’s from $23.00 to $19.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Wendy’s in a report on Thursday, June 13th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $16.00 price target for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Wendy’s presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.13.

Wendy’s Price Performance

NASDAQ WEN traded down $0.15 on Wednesday, reaching $16.83. 447,039 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,530,428. The company has a quick ratio of 2.02, a current ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 12.01. The Wendy’s Company has a 12 month low of $15.61 and a 12 month high of $20.84. The company has a market cap of $3.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.76. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $16.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.93.

Wendy’s (NASDAQ:WEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.01). Wendy’s had a net margin of 9.18% and a return on equity of 67.74%. The company had revenue of $570.73 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $577.15 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.28 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that The Wendy’s Company will post 1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wendy’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.94%. Wendy’s’s payout ratio is presently 101.01%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Wendy’s news, Director Matthew H. Peltz sold 1,000,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.18, for a total transaction of $17,180,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 14,943,466 shares in the company, valued at approximately $256,728,745.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 17.10% of the company’s stock.

Wendy’s Company Profile

The Wendy's Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a quick-service restaurant company in the United States and internationally. It operates through Wendy's U.S., Wendy's International, and Global Real Estate & Development segments. The company is involved in operating, developing, and franchising a system of quick-service restaurants specializing in hamburger sandwiches.