The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN) Short Interest Down 20.8% in January

The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 9,660,000 shares, a drop of 20.8% from the December 31st total of 12,190,000 shares. Approximately 5.2% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 3,900,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.5 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Wendy’s

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in Wendy’s by 670.3% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,402 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 1,220 shares during the period. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new position in Wendy’s during the second quarter valued at $27,000. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of Wendy’s in the second quarter valued at $30,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Wendy’s by 168.1% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,233 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 1,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AM Squared Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Wendy’s during the 3rd quarter worth about $49,000. 85.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on WEN. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $20.00 target price on shares of Wendy’s in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $19.00 price objective on shares of Wendy’s in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Wendy’s from $20.00 to $17.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Wendy’s from $18.00 to $18.75 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on Wendy’s from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Wendy’s has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $19.71.

Wendy’s Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WEN opened at $14.83 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $16.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $17.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 12.64, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.08. The company has a market capitalization of $3.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.78. Wendy’s has a 1-year low of $13.98 and a 1-year high of $20.65.

Wendy’s (NASDAQ:WEN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The restaurant operator reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25. Wendy’s had a return on equity of 70.02% and a net margin of 8.76%. The firm had revenue of $566.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $560.50 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.27 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Wendy’s will post 0.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Wendy’s

The Wendy’s Co engages in operating, developing, and franchising a system of quick-service restaurants. It offers hamburgers and related products, such as chicken breast sandwiches, nuggets, chili, and baked potatoes, French fries, freshly prepared salads, soft drinks, milk, coffee, frosty deserts, and kid’s meals.