Hhlr Advisors LTD. Purchases New Position in Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC)

Hhlr Advisors LTD. purchased a new stake in Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 665,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,977,000. Yum China accounts for 0.7% of Hhlr Advisors LTD.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of YUMC. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in Yum China by 1.0% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 11,967,353 shares of the company’s stock worth $369,073,000 after buying an additional 121,617 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Yum China by 49.6% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,865,803 shares of the company’s stock worth $356,206,000 after buying an additional 2,609,494 shares in the last quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD raised its stake in Yum China by 56.3% in the second quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD now owns 4,394,628 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,203,000 after buying an additional 1,582,859 shares in the last quarter. Waverton Investment Management Ltd raised its stake in Yum China by 350.7% in the third quarter. Waverton Investment Management Ltd now owns 4,203,087 shares of the company’s stock worth $189,202,000 after buying an additional 3,270,560 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its stake in Yum China by 4,176.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,588,977 shares of the company’s stock worth $161,576,000 after buying an additional 3,505,053 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup raised shares of Yum China to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com raised shares of Yum China from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Macquarie raised shares of Yum China from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $37.40 in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Yum China from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $35.50 to $60.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $51.68.

Yum China Stock Performance

Shares of YUMC stock opened at $46.55 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $46.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.80. The company has a market cap of $17.68 billion, a PE ratio of 20.60, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. Yum China Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $28.50 and a 12-month high of $52.00.

Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.59 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Yum China Holdings, Inc. will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum China Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th will be issued a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 26th. Yum China’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.32%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Duoduo (Howard) Huang sold 6,377 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.47, for a total transaction of $302,716.19. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 16,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $789,948.27. The trade was a 27.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Yum China Profile

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.