TD Cowen Reiterates “Hold” Rating for Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM)

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reaffirmed by investment analysts at TD Cowen in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $145.00 price objective on the restaurant operator’s stock. TD Cowen’s price objective points to a potential upside of 5.79% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on YUM. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Evercore ISI cut Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $160.00 to $145.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $145.94.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $137.06 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $134.23 and its 200-day moving average is $134.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.54 billion, a PE ratio of 25.62, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.10. Yum! Brands has a 1-year low of $123.60 and a 1-year high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by ($0.04). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.96% and a negative return on equity of 18.90%. The business had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.44 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Yum! Brands will post 5.59 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total value of $941,682.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 152,634 shares in the company, valued at $20,518,588.62. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total transaction of $941,682.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 152,634 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,518,588.62. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Scott Catlett sold 8,234 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.79, for a total transaction of $1,134,562.86. Following the sale, the insider now owns 29,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,017,818.61. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 30,622 shares of company stock valued at $4,172,740. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 24.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,012,969 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,022,648,000 after purchasing an additional 5,607,517 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 23.7% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,121,611 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,512,561,000 after buying an additional 3,470,883 shares during the last quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter worth about $200,668,000. Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 10.2% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 14,669,356 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,033,906,000 after acquiring an additional 1,362,813 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 36.6% in the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,174,526 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $301,498,000 after acquiring an additional 582,267 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.