AIA Group Ltd Invests $571,000 in Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC)

AIA Group Ltd acquired a new stake in Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 13,459 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $571,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in YUMC. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Yum China by 788.9% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,628,571 shares of the company’s stock valued at $787,029,000 after acquiring an additional 14,757,971 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Yum China during the 4th quarter valued at $294,441,000. Vontobel Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Yum China by 8,088.2% during the 1st quarter. Vontobel Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,212,482 shares of the company’s stock valued at $214,452,000 after acquiring an additional 3,173,249 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Yum China by 21.2% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 5,759,174 shares of the company’s stock valued at $365,074,000 after acquiring an additional 1,008,866 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its holdings in shares of Yum China by 23.3% during the 3rd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 4,847,238 shares of the company’s stock valued at $270,088,000 after acquiring an additional 916,418 shares in the last quarter. 85.58% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on YUMC shares. HSBC cut their price objective on Yum China from $66.80 to $51.30 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $38.00 price objective (down previously from $65.00) on shares of Yum China in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.65.

Yum China Stock Performance

YUMC stock opened at $37.09 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $40.30 and a 200-day moving average price of $42.55. Yum China Holdings, Inc. has a 1-year low of $33.55 and a 1-year high of $64.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The firm has a market cap of $14.54 billion, a PE ratio of 18.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.45.

Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.12. Yum China had a return on equity of 11.63% and a net margin of 7.53%. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.32 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.13 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 19.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Yum China Holdings, Inc. will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum China Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 5th were given a $0.16 dividend. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.73%. This is a positive change from Yum China’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 4th. Yum China’s payout ratio is presently 32.65%.

Yum China 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.