Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Receives $150.95 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $150.95.

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $141.00 price target (down from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, January 10th.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 597 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.07, for a total value of $94,964.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 64 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,180.48. The trade was a 90.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $793,300.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,897,573.60. The trade was a 29.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 44,839 shares of company stock valued at $7,136,292. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,604,632 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,021,194,000 after acquiring an additional 163,462 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 20.4% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,545,872 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $475,714,000 after purchasing an additional 601,361 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth $418,692,000. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,521,583 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $338,296,000 after purchasing an additional 24,681 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $315,996,000 after buying an additional 94,026 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $155.09 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.71, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $141.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $137.08. Yum! Brands has a 1 year low of $122.13 and a 1 year high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.83%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.