$WEN Aug. 21 options are heavily call-weighted: 154,625 calls vs. 68,377 puts, with a 0.44 put/call ratio. Max pain is $8, about 11.6% above the current price, suggesting bullish positioning into expiration.
E.J. Wunsch, President international, bought 6.16K shares.
Lindsay Radkoski, Chief Marketing Officer, bought 1.23K shares.
Aaron M Kale, Chief Accounting Officer, bought 2.26K shares.
"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of shorts, I will fear no hedgefund: for thou art with me; thy baconator and thy frosty comfort me in my final days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of Wendy's forever."
Dave 8:17
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Hello Everyone,
So anyone following me on here knows I am chasing the Wendy's ($WEN) turnaround thesis. I am not opposed to the occasional squeeze to put the pressure on, but that's not what I am chasing. Until the squeeze can hit the value I think this company will be worth in a few years, I'm not selling. I believe Bob Wright and Steve Cirulis are the right team to turn this company around. They are invested in the company (Bob certainly is) and have a successful track record of turning companies around.
Today's news solidifies my feelings on this position. When I first heard the news, I thought this could be a play to shake shorts out of their position, but that doesn't make any sense, the market is picking up on the play here. Peltz doesn't have any benefit in shaking the shorts loose. He has proposed a bid to taking Wendy's private in the past. Though unsuccessful, he has wanted to do this since 2022. He just heard the same news we all heard at the earnings report - something about that made him say, "now is the time to try again". Something about this asset has hit a point he wants to try again.
Personally, I think the honesty he heard out of Bob and Steve on the earnings call was what he needed. These two have been here a few months now, they have now pulled back the curtain and seen what's in store for them. It's more than they originally expected, but they got this. They know this industry, they know what they are doing and Peltz agrees. He saw a $7.50 a share and said, "that's a discount, let's grab this". I wish I had the money he has, because I agree.
If the market saw this as a short squeeze catalyst, we would have seen the price shed value throughout the day. We didn't see that - we saw the strongest volume profile is north of $8.25 and it should be noted, we are talking extreme volumes. We traded nearly 45 million shares today, recent 3-mo short term averages were hovering around 17.5 million shares a day, (6 month avg is 12M per day). Today's WVAP was $8.44 but yet we still closed at $8.66, this hype didn't lose steam throughout the day.
Going forward, it is going to be important to watch the news. Watch for the reputable news outlets to keep discussing this. Watch for who gets involved in this discussion and what the proposed offer might be. This IS NOT a guaranteed thing, at the moment, this is hype. This is the hype we have been hoping for. Even if this deal doesn't go through, a major investor sees the same value we are seeing. Hold. Hold strong. I would not recommend buying right now, there is too much up in the air at the moment. But even if this deal falls through or fizzles out, this is the news we wanted to see. This is going to get eyes on what is happening here.
I should have been buying more. I admit I grew cautious, not a high roller here. Just believed in what I saw that night on June 23rd.
Kramer must have said sell… sell… sell. 😂