Wendy's is staying the course, but a billionaire wants to change that

The past fewer years haven't been large for fast-food elephantine Wendy's, which shared successful February that it planned to adjacent 5%-6% of its locations successful 2026.

Twenty years ago, the company's banal began to plummet, spending astir of 2008 to 2012 successful dire straits. Starting successful 2013, though, it started a dependable ascent that lasted until the extremity of 2021. Since then, the banal has been connected its mode backmost down, and connected May 5, it deed its lowest terms of the twelvemonth astatine $6.37.

For astir Wendy's investors, that mightiness not needfully beryllium truthful bad. Wendy's banal pays a dividend, and a beauteous precocious 1 astatine that, with a guardant yearly complaint of 6.91%. The banal mightiness not beryllium doing its best, but if you've been holding the banal for each 20 of those years, you've earned a dependable watercourse of quarterly dividends the full time.

However, that mightiness each alteration soon if billionaire Nelson Peltz gets his way.

Wendy's could spell backstage via takeover bid

Billionaire activistic capitalist Nelson Peltz has been weighing his options for responding to the company's decline, according to the Financial Times. Peltz's hedge fund, Trian Fund Management, owns 16% of Wendy's. The fund's February filing called Wendy's "undervalued" and indicated an involvement successful launching a takeover bid.

If Wendy's goes backstage — and that is by nary means guaranteed — holders of the banal would get a payout, and Trian Fund Management would instrumentality power of the company, on with immoderate partners that articulation successful connected the takeover.

A takeover wouldn't needfully mean customers announcement immoderate contiguous sweeping changes to however Wendy's does business, but it's wide that Peltz believes things could beryllium going better, and it seems arsenic if Wendy's agrees.

Wendy's wants to crook things astir with Project Fresh

In October 2025, Wendy's launched Project Fresh, an ongoing effort "to revitalize the brand, reignite growth, accelerate profitability."

Those are each bully goals, but contempt the sanction evoking caller food, they don't needfully mean that the company's nutrient offerings volition improve.

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Instead, Project Fresh focuses connected details specified arsenic what hours each edifice operates, ensuring that unit grooming exemplifies hospitality, and continuing to present beardown quarterly dividends to investors.

When it unveiled Project Fresh, Wendy's said much details would beryllium coming successful its third-quarter net results. That net report, however, had precise small to accidental astir tangible changes being made, beyond reiterating the basal goals of the project.