Legato Capital Management LLC Grows Stock Holdings in The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN)

Legato Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN) by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 107,217 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,733 shares during the quarter. Legato Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.05% of Wendy’s worth $1,818,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Salomon & Ludwin LLC boosted its holdings in Wendy’s by 378.0% during the 1st quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 1,568 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 1,240 shares during the period. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in Wendy’s during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 1,551 shares in the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its position in shares of Wendy’s by 145.8% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 2,116 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 1,255 shares during the period. Finally, Mather Group LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Wendy’s in the first quarter valued at $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.96% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Wendy’s

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on WEN. Barclays decreased their price objective on Wendy’s from $20.00 to $18.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Wendy’s in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. They set a “sell” rating and a $16.00 price objective for the company. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $19.50 target price on shares of Wendy’s in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Stephens cut their target price on Wendy’s from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their price target on shares of Wendy’s from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.13.

Wendy’s Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of WEN stock traded down $0.03 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $16.92. 634,075 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,507,724. The stock has a market cap of $3.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.12, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.76. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $16.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $17.87. The Wendy’s Company has a fifty-two week low of $15.61 and a fifty-two week high of $20.84. The company has a quick ratio of 2.02, a current ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 12.01.

Wendy’s (NASDAQ:WEN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.01). Wendy’s had a return on equity of 67.74% and a net margin of 9.18%. The firm had revenue of $570.73 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $577.15 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that The Wendy’s Company will post 1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wendy’s Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 3rd. Wendy’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 101.01%.

About Wendy’s

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.