Joey Wat Sells 37,252 Shares of Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) Stock

Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) CEO Joey Wat sold 37,252 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.71, for a total transaction of $1,851,796.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 382,657 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,021,879.47. The trade was a 8.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Yum China Stock Up 0.8 %

Yum China stock opened at $49.72 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $18.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.34, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 0.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $46.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $44.68. Yum China Holdings, Inc. has a 52 week low of $28.50 and a 52 week high of $52.00.

Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.30 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.31 by ($0.01). Yum China had a net margin of 8.06% and a return on equity of 13.83%. On average, analysts expect that Yum China Holdings, Inc. will post 2.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum China Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.93%. This is a boost from Yum China’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. Yum China’s payout ratio is currently 41.20%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Yum China

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum China by 43.9% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 846 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 258 shares during the period. Snowden Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum China by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Snowden Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,726 shares of the company’s stock worth $228,000 after buying an additional 261 shares during the period. Atria Investments Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Yum China by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 23,074 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,111,000 after buying an additional 273 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum China by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 6,180 shares of the company’s stock worth $298,000 after buying an additional 276 shares during the period. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. boosted its holdings in shares of Yum China by 1.3% in the third quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 23,692 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,067,000 after buying an additional 304 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of Yum China from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th.

Yum China Company Profile

Yum China Holdings, Inc owns, operates, and franchises restaurants in the People's Republic of China. The company operates through KFC, Pizza Hut, and All Other segments. It operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Lavazza, Little Sheep, and Huang Ji Huang concepts. The company also operates V-Gold Mall, a mobile e-commerce platform to sell products; and offers online food deliver services.