Retirement Systems of Alabama Has $10.09 Million Stock Holdings in The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN)

Retirement Systems of Alabama raised its stake in The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN) by 4.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 517,693 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 20,525 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in Wendy’s were worth $10,085,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Trian Fund Management L.P. grew its position in Wendy’s by 60.9% in the third quarter. Trian Fund Management L.P. now owns 33,350,743 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $680,689,000 after acquiring an additional 12,618,115 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Wendy’s by 6.1% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,248,412 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $413,270,000 after acquiring an additional 1,162,540 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in Wendy’s by 1.4% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 5,270,722 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $107,575,000 after acquiring an additional 70,832 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Wendy’s by 0.4% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,674,711 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $95,411,000 after acquiring an additional 17,319 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in Wendy’s by 3.7% in the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 3,208,882 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $65,492,000 after acquiring an additional 113,406 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.96% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on WEN shares. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $20.00 target price on shares of Wendy’s in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Wendy’s from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $22.00 to $19.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Wendy’s from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $24.00 to $20.00 in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Wendy’s from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Gordon Haskett downgraded shares of Wendy’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $21.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.53.

Wendy’s Price Performance

NASDAQ:WEN opened at $19.92 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.33, a PEG ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.78. The Wendy’s Company has a one year low of $17.64 and a one year high of $23.90. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $18.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $19.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.66, a current ratio of 2.19 and a quick ratio of 2.18.

Wendy’s (NASDAQ:WEN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The restaurant operator reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by ($0.02). Wendy’s had a net margin of 9.37% and a return on equity of 56.24%. The business had revenue of $540.65 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $546.47 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.22 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that The Wendy’s Company will post 0.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Wendy’s Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. Wendy’s’s dividend payout ratio is 102.04%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kenneth W. Gilbert sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.07, for a total value of $81,315.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 31,304 shares in the company, valued at approximately $565,663.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 17.10% of the company’s stock.

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.