Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.71

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 6th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be given a dividend of 0.71 per share by the restaurant operator on Friday, March 7th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.97%. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67.

Yum! Brands has raised its dividend by an average of 10.3% per year over the last three years. Yum! Brands has a payout ratio of 42.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Yum! Brands to earn $5.94 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 47.8%.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM opened at $143.93 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.11. Yum! Brands has a 1 year low of $122.13 and a 1 year high of $144.43. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $132.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $133.65.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.41 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 21.13%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Yum! Brands will post 5.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,059 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.94, for a total transaction of $959,600.46. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,307,396.90. The trade was a 4.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on YUM. Argus raised Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Redburn Atlantic lowered Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price target on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $144.61.

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.