Inspire Investing LLC Makes New $809,000 Investment in Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC)

Inspire Investing LLC bought a new position in Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 16,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $809,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 258 shares during the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 304 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Yum China by 2.6% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 12,659 shares of the company’s stock worth $570,000 after purchasing an additional 323 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Yum China by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 21,720 shares of the company’s stock worth $978,000 after purchasing an additional 329 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. raised its stake in shares of Yum China by 11.9% in the third quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 3,750 shares of the company’s stock worth $169,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. 85.58% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YUMC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com cut Yum China from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Citigroup upgraded Yum China to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Yum China from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $35.50 to $60.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $49.57.

Yum China Stock Up 3.1 %

Yum China stock opened at $46.03 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $17.48 billion, a PE ratio of 20.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.29. Yum China Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $28.50 and a one year high of $52.00. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $46.94 and a 200 day moving average of $41.28.

Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.03 billion. Yum China had a return on equity of 13.39% and a net margin of 7.97%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.59 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Yum China Holdings, Inc. will post 2.33 EPS for the current year.

Yum China Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th were given a $0.16 dividend. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 26th. Yum China’s payout ratio is 28.32%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum China news, insider Duoduo (Howard) Huang sold 6,377 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.47, for a total value of $302,716.19. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 16,641 shares in the company, valued at $789,948.27. This represents a 27.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

About Yum China

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.