UTZ Brands (UTZ) AI Stock Analysis

• Market Cap: $1.51B
• Dividend Yield: 2.51%
• Average Volume (3M): 1.22M
• Price to Earnings (P/E): 167.0
• Beta (1Y): 0.02
• Revenue Growth: 1.22%
• EPS Growth: N/A
• Country: US
• Employees: 3,000
• Sector: Consumer Defensive
• Sector Strength: 42
• Industry: Packaged Foods
• EPS (TTM): 0.23
• Shares Outstanding: 87,509,770
• 10 Day Avg. Volume: 1,194,727
• 30 Day Avg. Volume: 1,218,829
• PEG Ratio: -0.49
• Price to Book (P/B): 1.81
• Price to Sales (P/S): 0.90
• P/FCF Ratio: 168.63
• Enterprise Value/Market Cap: 1.26
• Enterprise Value/Revenue: 1.32
• Enterprise Value/Gross Profit: 3.86
• Enterprise Value/Ebitda: 13.67
• 1Y Price Target: $13.57
• Price Target Upside: 28.75% Upside
• Rating Consensus: Strong Buy
• Number of Analyst Covering: 8
• EPS Forecast (FY): N/A
• Revenue Forecast (FY): N/A

• Rating: 56 Neutral
• Price Target: $10.00 ▼(-5.12% Downside)

UTZ Brands' overall stock score reflects strong revenue growth and strategic market expansion, particularly in California. However, the stock faces challenges with profitability, cash flow management, and technical indicators suggesting bearish momentum. The high P/E ratio indicates potential overvaluation, but the company's strategic initiatives and market expansion efforts provide a positive outlook.

Positive Factors

Revenue Growth & Branded Momentum

Sustained double-digit top-line growth increases scale, funds marketing and productivity initiatives, and supports share gains. Over 2–6 months this underpins the company’s ability to invest in distribution, product launches and margin programs that drive durable competitive positioning.

Material Deleveraging

A sharp reduction in leverage materially improves financial flexibility and lowers interest exposure. This durable improvement supports capital allocation for the California expansion, dividend maintenance, and targeted reinvestment without over-reliance on external financing.

Strong Brand (Boulder Canyon)

Having a leading brand in the natural channel provides a durable premium growth vector and higher velocity distribution. This brand equity supports margin resilience, portfolio diversification and easier expansion into new regions like California over the medium term.

Negative Factors

Very Low Net Profitability

An extremely low net margin severely limits conversion of sales into shareholder returns and buffers against shocks. Even with revenue gains, sustained sub-1% profitability constrains reinvestment, dividend sustainability and the ability to self-fund strategic initiatives.

Negative Free Cash Flow / Weakened OCF

Negative free cash flow and declining operating cash flow restrict capacity to deleverage, invest in route acquisitions, and accelerate margin programs. This persistent cash generation weakness is a structural risk to funding growth, buybacks, or higher dividends without external capital.

Input & Portfolio Execution Risks

Commodity-driven input cost volatility and underperforming portfolio elements create sustained margin pressure. Combined with needs for incremental investment (e.g., California expansion) and brand fixes, these factors can blunt planned EBITDA improvement and prolong margin recovery.

UTZ Brands Business Overview & Revenue Model

Company Description

Utz Brands, Inc. operates as a snack food manufacturing company. It offers a range of salty snacks, including potato chips, kettle chips, tortilla chips, pretzels, cheese snacks, veggie snacks, pork skins, pub/party mixes, salsa and queso, ready-to-eat popcorn, and other snacks under the Utz, Zapp's, ON THE BORDER, Golden Flake, Good Health, Boulder Canyon, Hawaiian, TGIF, TORTIYAHS!, and other brand names. The company distributes its products to grocery, mass, club, convenience, drug, and other retailers though direct shipments, distributors, and direct store delivery routes. Utz Brands, Inc. was founded in 1921 and is headquartered in Hanover, Pennsylvania.

How the Company Makes Money

UTZ Brands generates revenue through the sale of its snack products across multiple distribution channels, including grocery stores, convenience stores, and foodservice operators. The company employs a revenue model based on direct sales and distribution agreements, leveraging both its owned brands and private label offerings. Key revenue streams include the sale of packaged snacks and bulk products, with a significant portion of sales coming from their well-known brands in the salty snack category. Additionally, UTZ Brands has established strategic partnerships and alliances with major retailers to enhance distribution, which contributes to increased market penetration and brand visibility. The company's focus on innovation, new product launches, and effective marketing strategies further drives sales and profitability.

UTZ Brands Financial Statement Overview

Summary

Strong revenue growth and a sharply improved debt-to-equity position support the score, but very low net profitability (0.32% margin) and negative free cash flow point to execution and cash-generation risk.

Income Statement

UTZ Brands has shown a strong revenue growth rate of 33.61% in the TTM period, indicating robust sales expansion. However, the net profit margin is quite low at 0.32%, suggesting limited profitability. The gross profit margin is healthy at 34.06%, but the EBIT and EBITDA margins have decreased significantly compared to the previous year, reflecting increased operational challenges.

Balance Sheet

The company's debt-to-equity ratio has improved drastically to 0.067 in the TTM period from 1.34 the previous year, indicating a significant reduction in leverage. This enhances financial stability. However, the return on equity remains low at 0.81%, suggesting limited returns for shareholders. The equity ratio is not explicitly calculated but appears stable given the equity and asset figures.

Cash Flow

The operating cash flow has decreased, and the free cash flow is negative, indicating cash flow challenges. The free cash flow growth rate is positive, but this is due to a previous negative base. The operating cash flow to net income ratio is moderate, but the free cash flow to net income ratio is negative, highlighting cash flow management issues.

Breakdown	TTM	Dec 2024	Dec 2023	Dec 2022	Dec 2021	Dec 2020
Income Statement
Total Revenue	1.44B	1.41B	1.44B	1.41B	1.18B	964.31M
Gross Profit	491.36M	494.78M	456.49M	449.06M	383.91M	338.53M
EBITDA	138.96M	182.12M	99.25M	91.33M	127.67M	85.76M
Net Income	5.62M	15.97M	-24.94M	-392.00K	20.55M	-96.51M
Balance Sheet
Total Assets	2.78B	2.73B	2.75B	2.84B	2.72B	2.60B
Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments	57.70M	56.14M	52.02M	72.93M	41.90M	46.83M
Total Debt	1.03B	940.82M	985.34M	992.46M	909.01M	812.05M
Total Liabilities	1.41B	1.34B	1.36B	1.39B	1.28B	1.21B
Stockholders Equity	725.30M	702.45M	669.50M	703.15M	679.71M	552.91M
Cash Flow
Free Cash Flow	-25.45M	7.53M	20.92M	-39.77M	14.89M	7.97M
Operating Cash Flow	101.51M	106.17M	76.64M	48.19M	48.39M	29.70M
Investing Cash Flow	-136.32M	74.96M	-48.49M	-76.07M	-136.10M	-703.40M
Financing Cash Flow	27.66M	-177.01M	-49.05M	58.91M	82.78M	231.52M

UTZ Brands Technical Analysis

• Technical Analysis Sentiment: Positive
• Last Price: 10.54
• 50DMA: Positive
• 100DMA: Negative
• 200DMA: Negative
• MACD: Negative
• RSI: Neutral
• STOCH: Neutral

Evaluating momentum and price trends is crucial in stock analysis to make informed investment decisions. For UTZ, the sentiment is Positive. The current price of 10.54 is above the 20-day moving average (MA) of 10.24, above the 50-day MA of 10.05, and below the 200-day MA of 11.98, indicating a neutral trend. The MACD of 0.07 indicates Negative momentum. The RSI at 56.66 is Neutral, neither overbought nor oversold. The STOCH value of 42.48 is Neutral, not indicating any strong overbought or oversold conditions. Overall, these indicators collectively point to a Positive sentiment for UTZ.

UTZ Brands Peers Comparison

Name	Overall Rating	Market Cap	P/E Ratio	ROE	Dividend Yield	Revenue Growth	EPS Growth
JJSF	69 Neutral	$1.80B	28.31	6.82%	3.53%	0.54%	-24.42%
FLO	69 Neutral	$2.41B	12.49	13.73%	9.15%	0.26%	-19.45%
NOMD	67 Neutral	$1.86B	8.77	7.39%	5.40%	1.44%	8.29%
Sector *	62 Neutral	$20.33B	14.63	-3.31%	3.23%	1.93%	-12.26%
SMPL	62 Neutral	$1.74B	20.20	5.17%	―	8.98%	-26.29%
UTZ	56 Neutral	$1.51B	167.04	0.80%	2.51%	1.22%	―

UTZ Brands Corporate Events

Utz Brands Reports Strong 2025 Preliminary Results, Deleveraging

On January 12, 2026, Utz Brands announced preliminary, unaudited results for the fourth quarter and full year 2025, indicating modest top-line growth but stronger profit expansion and deleveraging. For Q4 2025, the company expects net sales of $342–343 million, reflecting organic net sales growth of 0.3%–0.6% year over year, while adjusted EBITDA is projected to rise 17%–21% to $62–64 million. For full year 2025, net sales are expected at $1,439–1,440 million, up 2.4%–2.5% in organic terms, with adjusted EBITDA increasing 8%–9% to $216–218 million and net leverage improving to about 3.4x on the back of stronger cash generation. Management highlighted that Q4 retail sales grew about 3.5% in a salty snack category that returned to 1.1% growth, with Utz outpacing the broader category on both retail sales and volumes and its “Power Four” brands growing 5.3% in the quarter and 5.0% for the year. Net sales lagged retail performance as channel partners reduced inventories in late 2025 due to factors such as SNAP payment delays and the government shutdown, though shipment trends normalized by year-end, and the company emphasized ongoing productivity, margin expansion, and growth initiatives, including a planned California expansion in early 2026.

The most recent analyst rating on (UTZ) stock is a Buy with a $15.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on UTZ Brands stock, see the UTZ Stock Forecast page.

Utz Brands Reports Q3 Sales Growth and Expansion

On October 30, 2025, Utz Brands reported its third-quarter financial results, showing a 3.4% increase in net sales to $377.8 million compared to the previous year. Despite a decline in gross profit margin, the company achieved a 5.8% growth in branded salty snacks organic net sales and adjusted EBITDA increased by 11.7% to $60.3 million. Utz also announced an expansion into California by acquiring Insignia International’s distribution assets, aiming to boost its market share in the largest U.S. salty snack market. The company raised its 2025 organic net sales growth guidance to 3% and reaffirmed its adjusted EBITDA and earnings per share growth expectations.

The most recent analyst rating on (UTZ) stock is a Buy with a $16.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on UTZ Brands stock, see the UTZ Stock Forecast page.