Utz Brands Inc (UTZ)
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On July 21, 2026 Utz Brands announced that the Pennsylvania snack maker had agreed to be acquired by Germany's Intersnack Group: $14.25 per Class A share in cash, roughly 91 percent above the July 20, 2026 closing price, an enterprise value of about $2.9 billion. What the headline does not say: Utz has two classes of stock, and only one of them gets cashed out — the founding family rolls its stake forward and would own 50 percent afterwards. Behind it sits a company whose revenue has been flat at about $1.44 billion for three years, whose adjusted earnings rose to $216.5 million in 2025, and which still reported a $7.7 million net loss. And the vote that decides everything has not happened yet. Not a buy tip — a look at the contract shareholders are being asked to sign.
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Basics
Performance
Valuation
Profitability
Balance Sheet & Safety
Growth
Dividend
Quality & Screener
AI Rating
NeutralUtz Brands ist ein Hersteller salziger Snacks ohne KI-Geschäft: In den geprüften Filings (Geschäftsbericht 10-K 2025, Quartalsbericht 10-Q zum 29.03.2026, vier 8-K-Meldungen und das Schedule 13D/A zur Übernahme durch Intersnack) kommt künstliche Intelligenz nur einmal vor — als allgemeiner Risikofaktor zum Schutz des geistigen Eigentums; die genannte „enhanced automation“ betrifft Anlagenautomatisierung in den Werken, kein KI-Produkt und keinen beschriebenen KI-Einsatz.
View the full file — quotes, sources, reviewed filings
„Our failure to obtain or adequately protect our intellectual property, including in response to developing artificial intelligence technologies, or any change in law that lessens or removes the current legal protections of our intellectual property may diminish our competitiveness and adversely affect our business and financial results."
Wenn wir unser geistiges Eigentum nicht erlangen oder nicht angemessen schützen — auch im Hinblick auf die Entwicklung von Technologien der künstlichen Intelligenz —, oder wenn eine Gesetzesänderung den bestehenden Rechtsschutz unseres geistigen Eigentums verringert oder aufhebt, kann dies unsere Wettbewerbsfähigkeit schmälern und unser Geschäft und unsere Finanzergebnisse beeinträchtigen.
„This decision is a key component of the Company’s long-term strategic roadmap, is expected to generate cost savings and should enable the Company to allocate more volume to its larger, more efficient facilities, while driving fixed cost leverage and enhanced automation capabilities across its remaining network."
Diese Entscheidung ist ein Kernbestandteil der langfristigen strategischen Ausrichtung des Unternehmens, soll Kosteneinsparungen erzeugen und es dem Unternehmen ermöglichen, mehr Volumen auf seine größeren, effizienteren Werke zu verteilen, wobei zugleich die Fixkostendegression und erweiterte Automatisierungsfähigkeiten im verbleibenden Werksnetz vorangetrieben werden.
Filings Reviewed: 10-K 2026-02-12 · 10-Q 2026-05-06 · 8-K 2026-07-22 · 8-K 2026-07-21 · 8-K 2026-05-28 · 8-K 2026-05-06 · SCHEDULE 13D/A 2026-07-22
Rated on July 30, 2026 · How the Rating Is Built
Highlighted are things our editorial team noticed: green = stands out as strong, red = deserves a closer look. No single metric is a verdict on its own — always read it in context.
Quarterly Figures
| Quarter | EPS (Earnings Per Share) | EPS YoY (%) | Sales ($M) | Sales YoY (%) | Net Margin (%) | OCF ($M) | FCF ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024: Q4 | 0.03 | – | 341 | -3.10 | 0.70 | 54 | 16 |
| 2025: Q1 | 0.09 | – | 352 | 1.60 | 2.10 | -20 | -59 |
| 2025: Q2 | 0.12 | -48.70 | 367 | 3.00 | 2.90 | 16 | -11 |
| 2025: Q3 | -0.17 | – | 378 | 3.40 | -3.90 | 51 | 28 |
| 2025: Q4 | -0.03 | -207.00 | 342 | 0.30 | -0.70 | 65 | 51 |
| 2026: Q1 | -0.02 | -122.50 | 361 | 2.60 | -0.50 | -12 | -26 |
- EPS (Earnings Per Share):
- Quarterly profit divided by the total share count — how much of the profit works out to a single share.
- YoY (Year over Year):
- Change versus the same quarter a year ago — this is how you compare without seasonal distortion (e.g. the holiday shopping season).
- Sales:
- All revenue for the quarter, before any costs are deducted — the top line of the income statement.
- Net Margin:
- What percentage of sales is left over as profit in the end. Negative means the company is posting a loss.
- OCF (Operating Cash Flow):
- The cash that actually flows into the till from the core business during the quarter — harder to dress up than book profit.
- FCF (Free Cash Flow):
- Operating cash flow minus capital expenditures — the money that's genuinely free to use, say for paying down debt, buybacks, or dividends.
Assessment: Opportunities & Risks
A branded food maker more than a hundred years old with documented reach: products in roughly 50 percent of U.S. households, eight plants, about 2,500 direct-store-delivery routes (as of December 28, 2025). The Utz brand alone produced more than $870 million of retail sales in 2025; branded salty snacks grew 4.7 percent and account for 88 percent of revenue, a gain the annual report attributes to the four core brands.
Revenue has been essentially flat across three 52-week fiscal years ($1,438.2 million, $1,409.2 million, $1,438.8 million), and the reported result was negative in two of the three ($7.7 million loss in 2025, $40.0 million loss in 2023). While adjusted earnings rose to $216.5 million in 2025, unadjusted EBITDA fell to $122.7 million — partly because of $65.4 million of transformation costs in a second consecutive year.
Of $2,786.1 million in total assets (March 29, 2026), $1,821.7 million is goodwill and other intangible assets; nothing tangible is left over. Net financial debt is $768.6 million against $43.1 million of interest expense (2025). And in 2025 the company paid $22.3 million of dividends plus $15.4 million to noncontrolling interest holders on just $9.4 million of free cash flow — the third year in a row.
The dual structure of 88,613,213 Class A and 55,349,000 Class V shares (July 15, 2026) is fully disclosed but systematically misleads the metrics: a market value built on Class A alone omits 38 percent of the company. The merger agreement simultaneously terminates a tax contract dating from the listing for $44 million; $24.0 million was carried on the balance sheet and the annual report projects a total obligation of $56.2 million (December 28, 2025).
No going-concern warning and no reported covenant breach: the main loan was refinanced in January 2025 and runs to January 29, 2032, the average rate fell to 5.6 percent in 2025, $577.6 million is hedged with interest rate swaps, and $119.7 million of the $225 million revolver was available on December 28, 2025. Cash from operations rose three years running to $112.2 million.
Utz Brands is the premium reflex in pure form: a headline about a 91 percent premium covers a snack maker whose revenue has been flat at about $1.44 billion for three years, which reported a $7.7 million net loss in 2025, and whose $216.5 million of adjusted earnings only exists because $65.4 million of transformation costs were stripped out for a second consecutive year. The price on the table is $14.25 per Class A share — across all 143,962,213 units that is $2,051.5 million of equity value and, with debt, about $2.8 billion of enterprise value, or roughly 13 times adjusted earnings. Nothing is done: two stockholder votes and the antitrust clearances are still outstanding, with an outside date of April 20, 2027. Not investment advice.
- Utz Brands reached the research list through the Reddit mentions in our in-house hype scanner (as of July 30, 2026). A live query on July 30, 2026 shows that the stock appears in none of our metric scanners — neither momentum nor quality nor valuation. Those lists are recalculated daily, so the finding is a snapshot.
- Market-value warning: price databases often compute Utz's market value from the 88.6 million Class A shares alone (about $1.2 billion on July 30, 2026) and leave out the founding family's 55.3 million Class V shares — 38 percent of the company. This analysis therefore does not use that figure and works only with the documented deal values: $2,051.5 million of equity value, $768.6 million of net financial debt, $2,820.1 million of enterprise value.
- Status of the takeover: merger agreement dated July 20, 2026, announced July 21, 2026, terms detailed in the 8-K filed July 22, 2026. None of it is completed; every statement about the outcome is in the conditional. The most recent period report is the quarterly report (10-Q) as of March 29, 2026; Utz announced second-quarter 2026 results for August 5, 2026, without a conference call.
- Not to be confused: Utz Brands, Inc. was called Collier Creek Holdings until the 2020 business combination and was a SPAC shell. The buyer, Intersnack Group GmbH & Co. KG of Düsseldorf, Germany, is a private, family-owned company and is not listed; per the press release it had no presence in the U.S. snack market before this transaction.
About the Company
Utz Brands, Inc. manufactures branded salty snacks in the United States.
| Employees | 3,100 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Hanover, PA |
| Website | utzsnacks.com |
| IPO Date | 26. Nov 2018 |
| Next Earnings | 30. Jul 2026 |
Management
| Name | Title | Birth Year |
|---|---|---|
| Howard A. Friedman | CEO, Principal Operating Officer & Director | 1970 |
| William J. Kelley Jr. | Executive VP & CFO | 1965 |
| Theresa Robbins Shea J.D. | Executive VP, Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary | 1973 |
| Jennifer Bentz | Executive VP & Chief Marketing Officer | 1971 |
| Trevor Martin C.F.A. | Senior Vice President of Investor Relations | – |
| Jeremy Stuart | Executive VP of Sales & Chief Customer Officer | 1974 |
| James Sponaugle | Executive VP & Chief People Officer | 1977 |
| Shannan Redcay | Executive Vice President of Manufacturing | 1981 |
| Marek Hejna | Executive Vice President of Finance | – |
| Chad Whyte | Executive Vice President of Supply Chain | 1976 |
Executives per the latest required filings; titles kept in their original language. Source: fundamental data.
Chart
Interactive price chart (TradingView).
Data as of: July 29, 2026 · Source: fundamental data & SEC filings (annual and quarterly reports, 10-K/10-Q)
Note: pure fact-based analysis, not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell. All figures without guarantee.