TD Cowen Downgrades Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) to Hold

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) was downgraded by stock analysts at TD Cowen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a $145.00 target price on the restaurant operator’s stock, down from their previous target price of $156.00. TD Cowen’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 8.43% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on YUM. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Evercore ISI cut Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $160.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $144.56.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.3 %

NYSE:YUM opened at $133.73 on Wednesday. Yum! Brands has a twelve month low of $118.28 and a twelve month high of $143.20. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $135.07 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $135.26. The company has a market cap of $37.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.08.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The restaurant operator reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.02. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.90% and a net margin of 21.96%. The firm had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.80 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.41 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands will post 5.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO Sabir Sami sold 71,051 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.16, for a total transaction of $9,745,355.16. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 68 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,326.88. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Sabir Sami sold 71,051 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.16, for a total transaction of $9,745,355.16. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 68 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,326.88. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,069 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.92, for a total value of $974,956.48. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 159,132 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,947,485.44. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 101,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,918,095 in the last ninety days. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Yum! Brands

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of YUM. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 24.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,012,969 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $4,022,648,000 after buying an additional 5,607,517 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 23.7% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,121,611 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,512,561,000 after buying an additional 3,470,883 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 10.2% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 14,669,356 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,033,906,000 after buying an additional 1,362,813 shares in the last quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.1% in the first quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 5,939,663 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $823,534,000 after buying an additional 121,285 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 3.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,164,159 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $419,123,000 after buying an additional 104,328 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.