By Adriano Marchese

Utz Brands expects fourth quarter sales below Wall Street expectations as retailers pared back orders late in the year and reduced their inventories.

The snack‑food maker said Monday that it expects net sales to be in the range of $342 million to $343 million, representing an organic growth of 0.3% and 0.6% compared with the fourth quarter of 2024.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization is expected to be between $62 million to $64 million, or 17% to 21% higher than a year ago.

According to a poll on FactSet, analysts expected sales to come in at around $351.1 million, and adjusted Ebitda of $63.2 million.

For the full year, Utz expects sales to be in the range of $1.439 billion to $1.44 billion, which represents an organic growth of between 2.4% to 2.5% over the prior year. Adjusted Ebitda is forecasted to be $216 million to $218 million, 8% to 9% higher.

For the year analysts forecasted revenue of $1.45 billion, and adjusted Ebitda of $217.4 million.

Chief Executive Howard Friedman noted that net sales have lagged retail sales due to channel partners reducing inventories during the second half of the quarter. He said the reduction was due to a variety of factors including SNAP payment delays and the government shutdown.

SNAP payments are monthly government food-assistance benefits.

Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 12, 2026 08:28 ET (13:28 GMT)

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