Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Receives Consensus Rating of "Hold" from Brokerages

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the twenty-two ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $156.20.

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Several research firms recently commented on YUM. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and cut their price target for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th.

Read Our Latest Research Report on YUM

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.4 %

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Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $149.21 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.55 billion, a PE ratio of 28.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $151.79 and a 200-day moving average of $140.99. Yum! Brands has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 19.68%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.15 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Yum! Brands will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

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The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.90%. This is an increase from Yum! Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is 54.41%.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 597 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.07, for a total transaction of $94,964.79. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 64 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,180.48. This represents a 90.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,139 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.70, for a total transaction of $753,891.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 157,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,162,903.10. The trade was a 3.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 55,271 shares of company stock valued at $8,706,576. Insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yum! Brands

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of YUM. Anchor Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 1,329 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $186,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 128.5% in the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 9,128 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $1,275,000 after buying an additional 5,134 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 54.4% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 47,604 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $6,651,000 after acquiring an additional 16,767 shares during the period. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 1,199.8% during the third quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 22,877 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $3,195,000 after acquiring an additional 21,117 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 12.0% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 130,858 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $17,620,000 after acquiring an additional 14,032 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Company Profile

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.

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