Wendy’s Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:WEN)

The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Investors purchased 30,928 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 1,416% compared to the average volume of 2,040 put options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on WEN. Wolfe Research raised shares of Wendy’s to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Wendy’s from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Truist Financial lowered their price target on shares of Wendy’s from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $29.00 price target on shares of Wendy’s in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Wendy’s from $23.00 to $19.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.22.

Insider Activity at Wendy’s

In other Wendy’s news, Director Matthew H. Peltz sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director now owns 14,943,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $256,728,745.88. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 17.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Wendy’s

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Wendy’s by 76.8% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,813,786 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $115,562,000 after buying an additional 2,960,526 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Wendy’s during the 2nd quarter worth about $42,085,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its position in shares of Wendy’s by 113.6% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 3,491,376 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $59,214,000 after buying an additional 1,856,970 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Wendy’s by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,097,095 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $397,469,000 after buying an additional 1,273,140 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Wendy’s during the 2nd quarter worth about $17,094,000. 85.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wendy’s Stock Performance

Shares of Wendy’s stock traded down $1.30 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $19.01. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,040,854 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,494,489. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $17.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 12.01, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.17. Wendy’s has a one year low of $15.61 and a one year high of $20.65. The stock has a market cap of $3.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.80.

Wendy’s (NASDAQ:WEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $570.73 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $577.15 million. Wendy’s had a net margin of 9.18% and a return on equity of 67.74%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.28 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Wendy’s will post 0.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wendy’s Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.26%. Wendy’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 101.01%.

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.