Oppenheimer analyst Brian Bittner maintained a Hold rating on Wendy’s (NASDAQ: WEN) today. The company’s shares opened today at $18.03, close to its 52-week high of $18.59.
Bittner wrote:
“WEN’s monetization of its 12.3% stake in $335M (after taxes) was a nice surprise for shareholders. This values the deal at ~$1.37/sh in equity vs our prior estimate of $1/shr. As for use of incremental proceeds, WEN upped its buyback by $100M and will use some amount for growth investments (technology, unit growth, etc). Overall, the company’s 2020 targets remain intact (e.g., $300M FCF), but do appear mostly appreciated at a ~25.5x forward P/E multiple and 6.5% FCF yield (backing out excess cash). Maintain Perform.”
According to TipRanks.com, Bittner is a 5-star analyst with an average return of 11.6% and a 70.0% success rate. Bittner covers the Services sector, focusing on stocks such as Restaurant Brands International, Jack In The Box Inc, and Cheesecake Factory.
Wendy’s has an analyst consensus of Moderate Buy, with a price target consensus of $20.67, a 14.6% upside from current levels. In a report issued on August 2, Kalinowski Equity Research also downgraded the stock to Hold.
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The company has a one-year high of $18.59 and a one-year low of $13.57. Currently, Wendy’s has an average volume of 2.95M.
Based on the recent corporate insider activity of 76 insiders, corporate insider sentiment is positive on the stock. This means that over the past quarter there has been an increase of insiders buying their shares of WEN in relation to earlier this year. Most recently, in June 2018, Nelson Peltz, a Director at WEN bought 12,000 shares for a total of $62,720.
TipRanks has tracked 36,000 company insiders and found that a few of them are better than others when it comes to timing their transactions. See which 3 stocks are most likely to make moves following their insider activities.
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, baked potatoes, French fries, freshly prepared salads, soft drinks, milk, coffee, frosty deserts and kids meals.
