GSA Capital Partners LLP Sells 34,143 Shares of The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN)

GSA Capital Partners LLP lowered its holdings in The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN) by 28.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 85,907 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 34,143 shares during the period. GSA Capital Partners LLP’s holdings in Wendy’s were worth $1,505,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WEN. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Wendy’s by 76.8% during the second 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 during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in Wendy’s in the 2nd quarter valued at about $42,085,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC lifted its holdings in Wendy’s by 113.6% during the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 3,491,376 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $59,214,000 after purchasing an additional 1,856,970 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Wendy’s by 6.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,097,095 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $397,469,000 after purchasing an additional 1,273,140 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Wendy’s during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $17,094,000. 85.96% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Tigress Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $29.00 target price on shares of Wendy’s in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Barclays cut their price objective on Wendy’s from $20.00 to $18.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Wendy’s from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Wendy’s from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Wendy’s to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Wendy’s has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.36.

Wendy’s Price Performance

Shares of Wendy’s stock opened at $18.38 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.35, a PEG ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 12.64. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $18.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $17.70. The Wendy’s Company has a 52 week low of $15.61 and a 52 week high of $20.65.

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

Wendy’s Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. Wendy’s’s payout ratio is presently 105.26%.

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.