Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) have earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eighteen research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $144.89.

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on YUM shares. Redburn Atlantic cut Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $145.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $141.00 target price (down from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $140.00 target price (down from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,059 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.94, for a total value of $959,600.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,307,396.90. This represents a 4.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,441,170 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,038,775,000 after buying an additional 111,147 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,164,159 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $419,123,000 after buying an additional 104,328 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,632,862 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $228,127,000 after buying an additional 6,537 shares during the last quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,428,040 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $199,511,000 after buying an additional 51,690 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 835,800 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $116,770,000 after buying an additional 2,800 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.4 %

NYSE YUM opened at $126.20 on Thursday. Yum! Brands has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $143.20. The stock has a market cap of $35.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 1.11. The business has a fifty day moving average of $133.44 and a 200-day moving average of $133.60.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by ($0.04). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 21.13%. The company had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.44 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands will post 5.46 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.12%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.09%.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division segments. It also operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, Mexican-style food categories, and other food products.