GetCoattail Research — Wendy's is the market's argument about a turnaround that has not arrived: a dividend halved, guidance withdrawn, a take-private story that surfaced and faded inside two weeks in August — and a stock that closed at $6.12 on October 2, its lowest close in 252 sessions. Four of our 83 superinvestors hold it long — 44,414,221 shares, 68.6% of them one holder, Trian — and short interest is 48,835,192 shares, 25.61% of the reported share count, up 125.5% in a year.
Start with the narrative: the quarter beat two estimates and still reset the story lower. Wendy's reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $570.57 million, up 1.8% year over year and above the $557.14 million consensus, with earnings per share of $0.18 against a $0.16 consensus — but $0.29 a year earlier. U.S. same-restaurant sales fell 7.0%, net income fell to about $32.6 million from $55.1 million, and on August 7 the company cut its quarterly dividend from $0.14 to $0.07 and withdrew its 2026 outlook. Then the activist plot turned twice: reports on August 12 that Trian was laying the groundwork for a take-private bid sent the stock up 14.7%, and a Reuters report on August 26 that Trian has no plans to bid right now sent it down more than 13%. On September 17, Meritage Hospitality Group, a franchisee operating 314 Wendy's restaurants, filed for Chapter 11. MarketBeat's consensus target average was $7.82 in early-October reporting; the next results are scheduled for November 5. AltIndex's 24-hour Reddit ranking places Wendy's ninth, at 44 mentions, up 22.2% — the highest-ranked stock we had not yet audited.
Now the filings. For Wendy's — the thirtieth Filing Tape audit — the story is concentration and borrow: one activist at more than two-thirds of the tracked register, a blank congressional record, almost no insider trading — and a short position equal to a quarter of the share count.
Lens 1: the superinvestors — four holders, one of them 68.6%
We track 83 large, mostly long-only managers whose 13F portfolios we collect directly from SEC EDGAR. As of June 30, 2026, 4 held Wendy's long — no option rows — totalling 44,414,221 shares worth $368,113,837. The direction count is two increased, one decreased, one new.
The register is a concentration story. Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management holds 30,468,434 shares worth $252,583,318, a 5.97% portfolio weight, increased 0.1% — and 68.6% of the tracked cohort's Wendy's shares. Prem Watsa's Fairfax Financial Holdings holds 8,005,627 shares worth $66,286,592, a 2.51% weight, increased 144.9%. Bill Nygren's Oakmark Funds holds 5,587,137 shares worth $46,317,366, a 0.06% weight, decreased 5.8%. First Eagle Investment Management is new, with 353,023 shares worth $2,926,561, a 0.0% weight. A quarter earlier the register had three filing rows totalling 39,644,725 shares — Trian's 30,446,022, Oakmark's 5,929,801, and a 3,268,902-share row we identify as Fairfax's on the filing-agent prefix and its exact +144.90% move (see methodology). The cohort total therefore rose 12.03%, almost entirely through Fairfax and First Eagle; Trian's own count barely moved (+0.07%). No Wendy's row appears in our EDGAR collection's exit lists. In a quarter when the price rose 19.3%, from $6.95 to $8.29, the cohort added shares — and its reported value implies $8.29 per share, matching the June 30 close exactly.
Lens 2: institutions — 412 filers, shares up 2.68%
Zoom out to the whole 13F market and the register is broad but quiet. At June 30, 2026, 412 institutions reported positions, up from 404 at March 31 (+1.98%), and 401 reported long positions. Reported shares rose 2.68%, from 174,266,673 to 178,943,115 shares, with 394 filers entering and 386 exiting. Reported aggregate value rose 36.42% to $1,718,860,921; the aggregate includes option rows, so we headline filer and share counts and label dollars "reported" (see methodology). The implied value per share, $9.61, sits 15.9% above the June 30 close of $8.29 — an unusually wide gap for this aggregate. The tracked cohort grew its share count 12.03% in the same quarter, from a far smaller base.
Lens 3: the 5% register — the same activist at 16.24%, and a passive reshuffle
Fifteen SC 13D/G filings cover Wendy's in our full parse — 3 SC 13G originals, 10 SC 13G/A amendments and 2 SC 13D/A amendments, with nineteen reporting persons and the most recent filed July 31, 2026. The two 13D/A amendments are the Trian group's: the Nelson Peltz row reported 30,904,107 shares (16.09%) as of July 8, 2025, and 30,913,106 shares (16.24%) as of February 18, 2026 — up 8,999 shares, in a register that has not printed since February. We report rows as filed and never sum them: group members report the same stake jointly, and the 13D's Peltz row is a different filing from Trian's 13F row. The 13G side is a passive reshuffle. BlackRock, Inc. reported 23,098,336 shares (12.1%) as of September 30, 2025, 19,753,790 shares (10.4%) as of March 31, 2026, and 24,419,760 shares (12.8%) as of June 30, 2026 — up 23.6% from the March row. The Vanguard Group reported 21,257,705 shares (11.07%), then 18,589,808 shares (9.75%), then 0 shares (0.0%) as of March 13, 2026; a row under a different reporter name, Vanguard Portfolio Management, then reported 10,450,899 shares (5.48%) as of June 30, 2026, reported as filed rather than as the same holder. AQR Capital Management, LLC stepped down to 3,113,100 shares (1.64%) as of March 31, 2026 — down 73.4% from its December row. Harris Associates L P fell 46.5% to 5,929,801 shares (3.1%) as of March 31, 2026; that figure matches the pipeline's first-quarter Oakmark row to the share, a cross-check between two registers of the same fund family.
Lens 4: insiders — $126,135.00 of purchases, $1,805,163.57 of sales, and a silent 90 days
The parsed Form 4 record holds 185 filings through October 2, 2026. Across it, open-market purchases total 6 transactions, 11,500 shares and $126,135.00, by five buyers — all six recorded as officer purchases. Against that stand 2 sales totalling 140,319 shares and $1,805,163.57, by two sellers, one recorded as an officer sale. The last year holds 2 purchases — 2,200 shares, $17,846.00, both officer purchases — against zero sales. The last 90 days hold no market trades at all: zero purchases and zero sales across 31 filings of grants, exercises and other non-market rows. Our site's insider aggregate (October 10, 2026) carries no Wendy's row at all: that does not contradict the full parse — its 90-day window is also zero in both directions — but here there is no site figure to match, and we say so. We assign no motives to any of it; the record's shape is a thin register in both directions, and complete silence for a quarter.
Lens 5: Congress — no record in either chamber
Across the congressional record we maintain (combined record as of October 3, 2026), Wendy's has no record at all — no purchases, no sales, no member rows. The House aggregate (as of October 3, 2026) and the Senate aggregate (as of October 1, 2026) each carry no Wendy's record. We report the absence rather than omitting the lens.
Lens 6: short interest — 25.61% of the share count, up 125.5% in a year
As of September 15, 2026 — the most recent FINRA settlement date — 48,835,192 Wendy's shares were sold short, with days-to-cover of 9.07, up 1.82% from the prior settlement. Year over year the borrow is up 125.5%, from 21,659,014 shares on September 15, 2025. The series peak is its most recent quarter-end: 59,995,573 shares on June 30, 2026, so the latest reading is 18.6% below the peak — the borrow crested on the same day the 13F registers froze. Against the 190,669,930 shares in our fundamentals file (as of July 31, 2026), the borrow is 25.61% of the reported share count — one share in four, in a stock whose tracked register is 68.6% one holder.
The recent settlements run 57,533,325 on July 15, then 58,820,073, 51,057,370, 47,962,117 and 48,835,192 — a July plateau near the peak, two settlements of unwinding, then a small rebuild. The series began at 8,323,461 shares on January 15, 2021; its lowest reading is 4,089,628 on August 31, 2021. At 25.61% of the share count, the size is the fact in this lens.
The gap, stated plainly
The registers describe a stock whose argument is loud and whose filing record is concentrated and quiet. Four of 83 tracked superinvestors hold Wendy's, and the cohort's shares rose 12.03% to 44,414,221 — but 68.6% of that is Trian's 30,468,434 shares, a position that itself moved +0.07% in the quarter; the growth came from Fairfax's +144.9% and a new First Eagle row. The full market barely moved — filers up 1.98% to 412, reported shares up 2.68% to 178,943,115. The 13D register's largest name is the same activist, at 30,913,106 shares (16.24%), unprinted since February. Insiders bought $126,135.00 in the parsed record against $1,805,163.57 of sales, with no market trade in 90 days. Congress registers nothing. And the borrow, at 48,835,192 shares and 25.61% of the share count, is up 125.5% in a year. One plausible reading is that the registers are waiting on the same event the narrative is: the borrow built into the quarter-end while tracked holders held or added, and both sides' next moves print after the November 5 results, not before them. The record supports each clause separately; it does not say which register is right.
What would change the picture
Nothing above is a recommendation. It is a record. These are the filings that would change the description:
- 1. The 2026Q3 13Fs (filing window closing mid-November 2026). Whether Trian's 30,468,434 shares, Fairfax's 8,005,627, Oakmark's 5,587,137 and First Eagle's new 353,023 survived a quarter in which the price fell 26.2% is the whole lens: with four holders and one at 68.6%, any single filer's decision rewrites this register.
- 2. The next Trian 13D/A. The group's register last printed on February 18, 2026, at 30,913,106 shares (16.24%). August's bid reports are not filings; an amendment — in either direction — would be this register's first filing-grade statement in three quarters.
- 3. An insider market trade of any size. Six purchases totalling $126,135.00 stand against 2 sales totalling $1,805,163.57, and the last 90 days hold no market trades. The first trade after this silence breaks a year-old pattern.
- 4. The November 5 results, read against the Q3 13Fs that follow. The narrative case rests on whether the turnaround answers a quarter of −7.0% U.S. same-restaurant sales, a halved dividend and a withdrawn outlook — visible in filings as whether the Q3 registers broaden beyond four tracked holders.
- 5. The next short-interest settlements after a quarter-end peak. The borrow stood at 48,835,192 shares on September 15, down 18.6% from 59,995,573 on June 30, up 125.5% in a year, at 25.61% of the share count with days-to-cover of 9.07. Whether it rebuilds toward the June peak or unwinds is the fastest-updating series in this audit.
Until one of those prints, the record describes a stock held by four of our 83 tracked superinvestors — 44,414,221 shares, 68.6% of them Trian's — whose insiders traded nothing in 90 days, whose congressional register is blank, and whose borrow rose 125.5% in a year to 25.61% of the share count.
Related reading: One of 83: The Superinvestors' T-Mobile Register Shrank to a Single Holder. Short Interest Is Up 44.3% in a Year. — Filing Tape #29; Seven of 83: One Holder Is 62.8% of the Superinvestors' Spotify Stake. Its Insiders Have Never Bought a Share. — Filing Tape #28; Zero of 83: The Superinvestors Aren't in IREN — Filing Tape #1. Wendy's own page: The Wendy's Company (WEN) on GetCoattail.
Methodology and data notes
- Superinvestor lens: 83 managers collected directly from SEC EDGAR Form 13F (managers_13f collection), positions as of June 30, 2026; Wendy's identified by CUSIP 95058W100. Four distinct managers hold long positions totalling 44,414,221 shares; all four reported rows are long (no put or call rows). Direction count across the cohort: two increased, one decreased, one new. Quarter-to-quarter cohort totals (39,644,725 shares at March 31 across three filing rows; 44,414,221 shares at June 30 across four filing rows; change +12.03% = (44,414,221 / 39,644,725) − 1) are from the site pipeline's holdings files on the same CUSIP basis in both quarters, and the pipeline's second-quarter total matches the EDGAR collection's long total exactly (difference of 0 shares and $0), so no collection difference needs reporting for this name. The first-quarter rows are filing rows under three filer numbers (Trian Fund Management 30,446,022 shares; Oakmark Funds 5,929,801; and a 3,268,902-share row under filing-agent accession prefix 0001104659). We identify the agent-prefix row as Fairfax Financial's first-quarter row because the same prefix carries Fairfax's second-quarter filing in the pipeline file and because 3,268,902 → 8,005,627 shares is +144.90%, matching the EDGAR collection's reported Fairfax change of +144.9% exactly; the identification is stated on that basis, not as a filer-name field in the pipeline row. Trian's reported change (+0.1%) is the EDGAR collection's figure and agrees with the pipeline rows (30,446,022 → 30,468,434 shares = +0.07%, which rounds to +0.1%); Oakmark's −5.8% agrees the same way (5,929,801 → 5,587,137 = −5.78%). No Wendy's row appears in the EDGAR collection's exit lists. Trian's share of the cohort is 68.6% = 30,468,434 / 44,414,221.
- Full-market lens: SEC Form 13F Data Sets full-market aggregation. The primary table is the full13f collection's by-ticker file (holders = distinct filers reporting the CUSIP; 401 of the 412 reported long positions), and its figures match the backfill fixtures' by-CUSIP row for 95058W100 and by-ticker row for WEN exactly on holders, shares, reported value, prior holders and prior reported value. Reported-value caution: the aggregate value ($1,718,860,921 over 178,943,115 shares) implies ≈$9.61 per share against a June 30, 2026 close of $8.29 in our price file, a gap of +15.9% — unusually wide for this aggregate. The aggregate sums the VALUE of every information-table row — including put and call option rows — while the share count covers long common-stock rows only, so we headline filer and share counts and label dollar values "reported."
- Insider lens: full-parse Form 4 aggregation (agg_by_ticker), record as of October 2, 2026 (185 filings). Sale and purchase counts are transaction-code counts (S and P) in non-derivative rows; grants and exercises are not counted as purchases, and one filing can contain many transaction rows. Purchase transactions total 6 across the parsed record (11,500 shares, $126,135.00, five buyers, all six recorded as officer purchases). Sale transactions total 2 across the record (140,319 shares, $1,805,163.57, two sellers), one of them recorded as an officer sale. In the year through October 2, 2026: 2 purchases (2,200 shares, $17,846.00, both recorded as officer purchases) and no sales. In the 90 days through October 2, 2026: no purchases and no sales across 31 filings. The site's insider aggregate (compiled as of October 10, 2026, 90-day window) carries no Wendy's row at all, so there is no site figure to compare against the full parse for this name; the full parse's own 90-day figures are zero in both directions, so the absence is reported as an absence, not as a numeric disagreement.
- 13D/G lens: full-parse SC 13D/G aggregation and parsed filings (15 filings matching CUSIP 95058W100 and issuer CIK 30697, nineteen reporting persons in aggregate: 3 SC 13G originals, 10 SC 13G/A amendments and 2 SC 13D/A amendments), filings through July 31, 2026. The Trian group's rows are reported once, through the Nelson Peltz row (30,904,107 shares at 16.09% as of July 8, 2025; 30,913,106 at 16.24% as of February 18, 2026; share change +0.03% = (30,913,106 / 30,904,107) − 1, filed February 18, 2026); the same amendments carry Peter W. May rows (30,697,418 shares at 15.99%; 30,706,417 at 16.13%) and Trian Fund Management, L.P. rows (14,943,466 shares at 7.78% and 7.85%), which are the same stake reported jointly and are not additional positions. The 13D Peltz row and Trian's 13F row (30,468,434 shares as of June 30, 2026) come from different filing types with different as-of dates and are reported separately, never blended. BlackRock, Inc.'s rows (23,098,336 shares at 12.1% as of September 30, 2025; 19,753,790 at 10.4% as of March 31, 2026; 24,419,760 at 12.8% as of June 30, 2026, filed July 30, 2026; change from the March row +23.6% = (24,419,760 / 19,753,790) − 1), The Vanguard Group's rows (21,257,705 at 11.07% as of June 30, 2025; 18,589,808 at 9.75% as of September 30, 2025; 0 shares at 0.0% as of March 13, 2026, filed March 27, 2026), the separate Vanguard Portfolio Management row (10,450,899 shares at 5.48% as of June 30, 2026, filed July 31, 2026 — a different reporter name, reported as filed and not merged with The Vanguard Group's rows), AQR Capital Management, LLC's rows (13,843,438 at 7.21%; 8,478,244 at 4.45%; 11,705,610 at 6.15% as of December 31, 2025; 3,113,100 at 1.64% as of March 31, 2026; change from the December row −73.4% = (3,113,100 / 11,705,610) − 1; the AQR Capital Management Holdings, LLC rows in the same filings carry identical figures as joint reporting) and Harris Associates L P's rows (11,076,295 at 5.8% as of June 30, 2025; 5,929,801 at 3.1% as of March 31, 2026; change −46.5% = (5,929,801 / 11,076,295) − 1) are reported as filed. No rows are summed, because the aggregation's totalSharesReported field (439,690,632 shares) adds group members and different dates together and would multiply-count single positions. No reason for any change is asserted — the filings themselves are the record.
- Congress lens: Senate PTR archive and House PTR archive as maintained on this site, combined record as of October 3, 2026 — no Wendy's record: no purchase transactions, no sale transactions and no member rows in the combined aggregate. The House aggregate (as of October 3, 2026) and the Senate aggregate (as of October 1, 2026) each carry no Wendy's record, and we report that absence in both chambers rather than omitting the lens. Congressional disclosures report value ranges, so where this lens has data for other names it records direction and counts only.
- Short interest lens: FINRA Equity Short Interest files (biweekly settlement dates), collected directly from FINRA's public distribution; the Wendy's series covers 137 settlements from January 15, 2021 to September 15, 2026. The maximum of the full collected series is 59,995,573 shares on June 30, 2026 — inside the chart window — so the latest reading of 48,835,192 shares on September 15, 2026 sits 18.6% below the peak ((48,835,192 / 59,995,573) − 1) and 125.5% above the September 15, 2025 reading of 21,659,014; the change from the prior settlement (47,962,117 shares on August 31, 2026) is +1.82%, and the June 30, 2026 settlement is itself the peak, so the change since quarter-end is the same −18.6%. The latest row's prior-settlement field (47,962,117) matches the prior settlement file's reported figure exactly. FINRA publishes each settlement about two weeks after the fact. The share-count ratio uses the fundamentals file's share count of 190,669,930 shares outstanding as of July 31, 2026.
- Fundamentals note: our fundamentals collection carries Wendy's fiscal-2025 revenue of $2,176,891,000, fiscal-2025 net income of $165,075,000 and fiscal-2025 assets of $4,956,561,000. The market value of about $1.17 billion uses that file's October 6, 2026 price ($6.16) and reported share count; our daily-close file ends October 2, 2026 at $6.12, and we keep the two files' figures separate rather than blending them.
- Prices: our own daily-close file for Wendy's through October 2, 2026 ($6.12 close, −26.5% year to date on that file; 252-session closing high $9.55 on October 3, 2025; 252-session closing low $6.12 on October 2, 2026 — the latest close is itself the low; closes of $6.95 at March 31, 2026 and $8.29 at June 30, 2026, a second-quarter change of +19.3%; change from June 30 to October 2 of −26.2% ((6.12 / 8.29) − 1)). The drawdown from the 252-session closing high is −35.9% ((6.12 / 9.55) − 1), and the gain from the 252-session closing low is +0.0%.
- Market context sources: second-quarter 2026 results (revenue of $570.57 million, up 1.8% year over year, against a $557.14 million consensus; earnings per share of $0.18 against a $0.16 consensus and $0.29 a year earlier; U.S. same-restaurant sales down 7.0% and international down 2.3%; net income of about $32.6 million against $55.1 million a year earlier) — earnings coverage of the company's August 7, 2026 announcement, checked October 10, 2026, summarised in our own words; a dividend cut and outlook withdrawal announced the same day (quarterly dividend from $0.14 to $0.07 per share) — company announcement as reported, checked October 10, 2026; take-private reporting (reports on August 12, 2026 that Trian was laying the groundwork for a bid, with the stock up 14.7% that day; a Reuters report on August 26, 2026 that Trian has no plans to make a bid right now, citing concerns about performance, valuation and strategy, with the stock down more than 13%) — Reuters as reported by other outlets, checked October 10, 2026; a Chapter 11 filing on September 17, 2026 by Meritage Hospitality Group, a franchisee operating 314 Wendy's restaurants — franchise and market coverage, checked October 10, 2026; analyst targets (MarketBeat consensus average of $7.82, with two buy, thirteen hold and five sell ratings, in reporting dated October 5–7, 2026; a Morgan Stanley target of $5.50 dated August 10, 2026; a UBS target of $8.00 reiterated August 10, 2026) and a next earnings date of November 5, 2026 (results before the market opens, call at 8:30 a.m. ET) from the company's PR Newswire announcement — market coverage, checked October 10, 2026; early-October reporting of an intraday trade as low as $5.95, a new 52-week intraday low — an intraday figure, kept separate from our closing-price file, whose October 2 close of $6.12 matches the prior close cited in that reporting; a June 2026 retail-attention rally in Wendy's shares reported at the time, including a Nasdaq-data figure cited in that coverage that short interest had risen about 81% from the start of 2026 through May — reported coverage, checked October 10, 2026; search-attention ranking (Wendy's ninth at 44 Reddit mentions in 24 hours, up 22.2%, on AltIndex's ranking as refreshed October 10, 2026, with the six higher-ranked audited names previously covered or skipped in this series, the seventh- and eighth-ranked names, GAP and MRNA, skipped in this run for having no record in our fundamentals file, and Insider Monkey's 20-name Google search-volume list fully covered or skipped through its twentieth name) — AltIndex and Insider Monkey, checked October 10, 2026. Figures we could not confirm against two sources were left out.
- Wendy's is in the GetCoattail stock-page universe: The Wendy's Company (WEN) stock page. Series data: wen_lens_data.csv · wen_short_interest_series.csv. Earlier audits: T-Mobile US, Inc. · Spotify Technology S.A. · IREN.
Past patterns are not a promise of future results. For education only — not investment advice.
This article describes public filings as of the dates stated. It is not investment advice and makes no recommendation. Filings lag reality: 13F positions are as of June 30, 2026, and later trading is not yet public.
Revision history
- v1.0 — October 10, 2026: first publication.