Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Receives $174.50 Average Price Target from Analysts

Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-one brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $174.50.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, December 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, November 17th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $171.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM opened at $168.01 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $157.38 and its 200-day moving average price is $151.13. Yum! Brands has a 1-year low of $137.33 and a 1-year high of $169.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.44 billion, a PE ratio of 30.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.64.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.45 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 22.42% and a net margin of 18.98%.The business’s revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.61 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 20th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 20th. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.05%.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.63, for a total transaction of $265,383.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total transaction of $40,176.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 65,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,840,607.94. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 14,138 shares of company stock worth $2,289,990. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,242,558 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $5,356,869,000 after purchasing an additional 684,946 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 20.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 19,419,826 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,938,139,000 after buying an additional 3,240,190 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,164,814 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,991,573,000 after buying an additional 124,720 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,800,382 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,334,427,000 after buying an additional 121,304 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $706,799,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc (NYSE: YUM) is a global quick-service restaurant company that develops, operates and franchises a portfolio of well-known restaurant brands. The company’s principal brands are KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, each focused on distinct product categories—KFC on fried chicken and related menu items, Pizza Hut on pizza and complementary offerings, and Taco Bell on Mexican-inspired quick-service food. Yum! is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky and was formed as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997 when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant businesses, later adopting the Yum! Brands name.

The company’s operating model centers on brand development, system growth and franchising; a large portion of its restaurants are operated by independent franchisees, and Yum! generates revenue through franchise royalties and fees in addition to sales from company-operated locations.