Triarc Shares Up As Price Target Lowered

In December, Deerfield Capital completed its acquisition of its external manager, Deerfield & Co. LLC, from Triarc, paving the way for Triarc to become a pure-play restaurant company. Triarc was in the midst of a restructuring to shed Deerfield & Co., a Chicago-based fixed income asset manager, so it could focus on the restaurant business.

Deerfield Capital's stock is down 78 percent for the month to date.

Late Wednesday, Triarc said it anticipates a first-quarter impairment charge between $60 million and $70 million. The charge would essentially wipe out the $40 million gain Triarc saw from Deerfield in the fourth quarter, according to a client note from Michael Gallo of CL King & Associates.

Triarc also said it will distribute about 9.8 million Deerfield Capital shares to Triarc stockholders through a special dividend as soon as possible and may change its name to Arby's to emphasize its pure-play restaurant focus.

"We believe this (name change) should remove an overhang that has been on the stock for some time," the analyst wrote.

Gallo cut Triarc's price target by 25 percent to $15 from $20.

Shares of Triarc rose 5 cents to close at $7.24. Earlier, the stock lost as much as 38 cents, or 5.3 percent, to $6.81. The stock has traded in a range of $6.47 to $19.73 over the past year.