Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Receives $144.89 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eighteen ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $144.89.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on YUM. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $140.00 target price (down from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, January 21st.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was 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 directly owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Yum! Brands

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in Yum! Brands by 3.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,164,159 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $419,123,000 after acquiring an additional 104,328 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the second quarter valued at approximately $7,645,000. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 17,133 shares in the last quarter. DoubleLine ETF Adviser LP acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the second quarter worth approximately $984,000. Finally, OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at $1,262,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $129.31 on Thursday. Yum! Brands has a one year low of $122.13 and a one year high of $143.20. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $132.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $133.58. The stock has a market cap of $36.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.11.

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). The company had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 21.13%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.44 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Yum! Brands will post 5.46 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.07%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 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.