Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Receives $151.60 Average PT from Brokerages

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) has been given an average rating of “Hold” by the twenty-two brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $152.24.

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on YUM shares. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. TD Securities reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $164.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $793,300.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,897,573.60. The trade was a 29.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total value of $1,367,913.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $470,329.20. This trade represents a 74.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 50,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,952,685 in the last 90 days. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yum! Brands

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 2,664 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $357,000 after buying an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A now owns 15,357 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,060,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 6,605 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $886,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the period. Investment Partners LTD. raised its position in Yum! Brands by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Investment Partners LTD. now owns 3,231 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $433,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.1% in the first quarter. Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. now owns 3,614 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $569,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

YUM opened at $144.97 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $40.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.77, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90. Yum! Brands has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $152.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $140.02.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.96%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 54.41%.

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.