Copley Financial Group Inc. Invests $451,000 in The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN)

Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN) in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 25,749 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $451,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new stake in Wendy’s during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of Wendy’s in the second quarter valued at $30,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Wendy’s in the 2nd quarter worth about $33,000. Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in shares of Wendy’s by 94.7% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,644 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 1,286 shares during the period. Finally, AM Squared Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Wendy’s during the 3rd quarter worth about $49,000. Institutional investors own 85.96% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WEN. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $19.00 price target on shares of Wendy’s in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Wendy’s from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Wendy’s from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Wolfe Research raised shares of Wendy’s to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $20.00 price objective on shares of Wendy’s in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Wendy’s presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.36.

Wendy’s Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WEN traded down $0.16 during trading on Friday, reaching $17.13. 167,341 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,514,268. The Wendy’s Company has a 12-month low of $15.61 and a 12-month high of $20.65. The company has a current ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 12.64. The stock has a market cap of $3.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.20, a PEG ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.77. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $18.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.58.

Wendy’s (NASDAQ:WEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The restaurant operator reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.25. Wendy’s had a return on equity of 70.02% and a net margin of 8.76%. The company had revenue of $566.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $560.50 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.27 earnings per share. Wendy’s’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that The Wendy’s Company will post 0.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wendy’s Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.84%. Wendy’s’s payout ratio is 105.26%.

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.