Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) Lowered to Market Perform Rating by Sanford C. Bernstein

Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report report published on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has $135.00 target price on the restaurant operator’s stock, down from their prior target price of $140.00.

YUM has been the topic of several other reports. Argus raised Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. Redburn Atlantic downgraded Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and issued a $145.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $144.89.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

YUM opened at $126.20 on Wednesday. Yum! Brands has a 12 month low of $122.13 and a 12 month high of $143.20. The business has a 50-day moving average of $133.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $133.60. The stock has a market capitalization 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.

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

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total value of $522,883.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. The trade was a 2.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Yum! Brands

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. 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. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new position in Yum! Brands during the second quarter worth $7,645,000. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 15.5% during the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 127,446 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $17,805,000 after purchasing an additional 17,133 shares during the last quarter. DoubleLine ETF Adviser LP acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the second quarter worth $984,000. Finally, OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the third quarter worth $1,262,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.