Wendy’s stock pops on takeover news, Jack Dorsey to leave Twitter board today

Yahoo Finance Live anchors discuss the latest news for three trending stock tickers: Wendy's, Valvoline, and Twitter.

Video transcript

SEANA SMITH: It's time for our triple play. Three stocks that we are watching here, with just about 25 minutes until the closing bell. First up, I'm taking a look at Wendy's because Wendy's shares are surging today. Look at that, the stock up just over 10%. Now, investors mulling a potential takeover. Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management, Wendy's largest shareholder, announced that it will be exploring a possible sale or a merger for the company. Today's gain the biggest jump that the stock has seen in nearly a year.

In a statement, Wendy said that, quote, "The board will carefully review any proposal submitted by Trian partners. We remain focused on achieving our vision of becoming the world's most thriving and beloved restaurant brand." Now Wendy's stock has been an underperformer as the burger chain has faced higher commodity prices, as well as labor costs. Now the stock is down 12% in just the past month, down 25% so far this year, Jared.

JARED BLIKRE: Yeah, well, I've got to tell you, I loved those square hamburgers when I was a kid. That was pretty trippy. But this is a turnaround--

DAVE BRIGGS: You were a kid? What? You don't like them anymore?

JARED BLIKRE: I don't eat them anymore.

DAVE BRIGGS: Why?

JARED BLIKRE: Well, because they're in the midst of a turnaround strategy, and I want to see how they emerge on the other side, Dave. Now--

DAVE BRIGGS: Ah.

JARED BLIKRE: Yeah, I'm brutal here.

DAVE BRIGGS: I want to come fight you, man. Wendy's is still good.

SEANA SMITH: They're good. They're good.

JARED BLIKRE: I do like Frostys. I do like Frostys.

SEANA SMITH: The fries are good, too.

JARED BLIKRE: All right, we're going to move on, because I am talking about Saudi Aramco potentially making a bid for Valvoline. And this has all kinds of implications. Saudi Aramco, by the way, is the largest public company in the world. They surpassed Apple, I think a couple of months ago. And why? Well, the oil prices are high. We all know that situation. Nevertheless, buying Valvoline.

Now, this is-- I know Valvoline because it's painted across NASCAR's. And I'm just wondering, what happens to that NASCAR? I don't think we're going to see the Saudi royal crown or any logos like that on them, but interesting purchase here. And from an ESG perspective, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Aramco actually gets some pretty high marks here, Dave.

DAVE BRIGGS: Yeah, interesting article in the "Journal" talking about the world's largest company by market cap, but calling it a second class stock because despite net profits of 80% in Q1, the only one that benefits from that is, of course, the Saudi government, not really those shareholders. So it's a very fascinating company. I'm still angry at you, though, about the square burgers.

SEANA SMITH: He can't get over it.

DAVE BRIGGS: You do like fries and Frostys, right? Do you ever dip them?

JARED BLIKRE: I've never dipped.

SEANA SMITH: Oh, that is the move. It's so good. I tried it.

JARED BLIKRE: The chocolate? Because I--

DAVE BRIGGS: Dip the fries.

SEANA SMITH: Right into the Frosty.

JARED BLIKRE: But is it vanilla? Oh, it's only chocolate Frosty, right?

DAVE BRIGGS: No, they have both.

JARED BLIKRE: OK.

DAVE BRIGGS: They have both.

SEANA SMITH: Regardless, it's very good. You can do either X flavor.

JARED BLIKRE: I'm a ketchup man.

DAVE BRIGGS: I love when the wheels come off here. Love it, love it. Time now for the Musk Minute. My play is Twitter. News today out of the annual shareholder meeting the company's co-founder and former CEO, Jack Dorsey, is no longer a member of Twitter's board of directors. Dorsey, who founded the company 16 years ago, is friendly with Elon. And rumors have swirled about him rolling his ownership into the deal to buy the company and take it private.

Shares of Twitter have popped on the day. They are up more than 3% on the day, but it's been a rough year, down 30% year to date. Now what the interesting thing is, when you look at the share price, 54.20, that they agreed to that deal, they have fallen 30% from that point. And Elon Musk, it's been a tough year for the world's richest man. His net worth is down $77 billion year to date. It's been a rough go, but he's still the world's richest.

JARED BLIKRE: Yeah, Tesla-- I was just doing that market [INAUDIBLE]. Tesla got cut in half officially today, so kind of a landmark day. Hopefully, hopefully, it doesn't go down further.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, we'll see what all this means for Twitter. I think there's a lot that remains to be seen, just in terms of whether or not Elon Musk is actually going to follow through and buy Twitter. But Jack Dorsey stepping down as-- from the board really marks the end of an era.

DAVE BRIGGS: Yeah.

SEANA SMITH: It wasn't--

DAVE BRIGGS: It was telegraphed.

SEANA SMITH: It was telegraphed.

DAVE BRIGGS: Largely speaking, but.

SEANA SMITH: So I wasn't surprised, but still, he's fully now removed from the company the possibility of Elon coming in. Very uncharted territories for Twitter and for a lot of those-- the employees that work there.

DAVE BRIGGS: Does Elon make the deal?

SEANA SMITH: I don't know.

DAVE BRIGGS: I don't think so.

SEANA SMITH: What do you think, Jared?

JARED BLIKRE: You know, he's trying to get out. I think he can weasel his way out. And he's going to pay a negligible fine, unfortunately, probably.

DAVE BRIGGS: A billion bucks, negligible.

JARED BLIKRE: Well, I'm talking about--

SEANA SMITH: For him.

JARED BLIKRE: --from the SEC investigations, the probes. There's a lot there's a lot to unpack here and look into. I don't think he followed the letter of the securities laws, but that's not my judgment to make.

DAVE BRIGGS: No, it doesn't appear so, but the SEC blinked, right?

JARED BLIKRE: Yes, they did, big time.

DAVE BRIGGS: No doubt.