Brokerages Set Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Price Target at $145.94

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seventeen analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $146.00.

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on YUM. Argus raised Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total transaction of $522,883.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,474,708.10. This trade represents a 2.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 17,879 shares of company stock worth $2,424,167. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Yum! Brands

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at $29,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 957.1% during the 3rd quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 222 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 43.6% in the 2nd quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 270 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares during the period. Kimelman & Baird LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the second quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $133.44 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.94, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.10. Yum! Brands has a twelve month low of $124.76 and a twelve month high of $143.20. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $135.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $134.08.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.41 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 21.13%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.44 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Yum! Brands will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 50.09%.

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.